MA STER 

NEGATIVE 

NO.  91-80285 


MICROELMED  1991 


"~"^,   ':'""ZZ.  ^  A      T 


.  J 


''^~%' 


^-zJ.  '_>.v  tKb:.  1  .^LbKAX,. 


^WYORK 


i^^t,  ^:    »,. 


%.  ■% 


-^    r-     *-    < 


'  ! 


of  West 


..  -*  •  .^    «j 


:  of  the 

:an  n  Preservation  F 


*  * 


Funded  bv  the 

N  Alices Al  EM)OAAIHyT  FOR 


^UMANmBS 


ri  ^--^-* 


*-%.:- 


4 


^  *.- 1,.^, 


^.       V. 


■•»»..■       V,  ,, , 


t  permission  from 


*-■*-•  ■*'  •? ' 


.  r  r  -xy 


COPYRIGHT  STATEMENT 

Thf  copyright  k-.v  of  me  I  r.iten  States  --  Title  17,  United 
States  Code  -  concerns  the  malims  of  nhotocopies  or  other 

reproductions  oi  copyrighted  material..". 

Columbia  L  n;^  e-s'ry  Librae  : :  :-erves  the  right  to  r^-^u^e  to 
accept  a  cop}-  order  :f_  m  its  judgement,  fulfilimen:    'die  order 

^v^'oula  mx'oh'e  -^loiatiDn  of  the  cottvricrht  law. 


AUTHOR 


CAIRNS,  JOHN,  D.D 


A-  M  „j[  M.^A.^'  # 


ROMANISM  AND 
RATIONALISM  ... 


PLA  CE : 


LONDON 


DATE: 


1863 


Restrictions  on  Use: 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES 
PRESERVATION  DEPARTMENT 


Master  Negative  ff 

51-802^)5-8 


BIl 


f  OTl 


OFOU 


GET 


Original  Material  as  Filmed  -  Existing  Bibliographic  Record 


^11         C a i Yi 'n s      "K «= •*—    Jo  h ^i . 
Cl2,2      I 


I 


d      fo      pure     Chrisf  ia>'i|-^L^. 

P 


as     opposea      to      p 
Lo-ndoln      iS&3.        D.      BOp, 


n^iia 


TECHNICAL  MICROFORM  DATA 

FILM     SIZE:_3^SXC-!}^. REDUCTION     RATIO: 

IMAGE  PLACEMENT:    lA     IIA     IB     IIB 

D\-^      FILMED:_:__i;^_ INITI  ALS_^0__£_._ 

nL:,:;.DBY:    RESEARCH  PUBLICATIONS,  INC  WOODBRIDGE.  CT 


c 


Association  for  information  and  Image  Management 

1100  Wayne  Avenue,  Suite  1100 
Silver  Spring,  Maryland  20910 

301/587-8202 


Centimeter 

12         3        4         5 

niiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiilniiliiiiliiii 


iiij 


t  iiiiiiiii  iiiiiiii 


8         9        10 

mliiiiliiiiliiii 


11       12       13 

iilimliiiilimliiiiliiii 


14       15    mm 

iilimliinl 


Ml 


Inches 


1 


ITT 


7TTTT 


1.0 


LI 


1.25 


Mill 


1^  |2.8 

2.5 

1^  ||M 

2.2 

1h 

2.0 

1.8 

1.4 

1.6 

|-rTTT 


6> 


/ 


o 


& 


w/ 


MflNUFRCTURED   TO   flllM   STflNDPRDS 
BY   fiPPLIED   IMRGEp     INC. 


%v 


iri 


t    to  .y\ 


\^E  -W 


|"#^-'^' 


/^t 


%',4-"' 


<«?•# 


-*  c^ 


mm 


.it" 


d  ^■. 


-l^^^' 


r^iia^. 


t.°>v 


;<£Sa^ 


^,5"* 


»*      ***& 


'-r^ 


iv^  <  t** 


f*^ 


j^-J 


^-  "^:j^^si^ 


■'l«i* 


gsr*.  M 


t 

•i^% 


■:9'. 


^*    *i 


4fi 


«l- 


"^■V  , 


"^' 


C\ZZ 


CToUimbia  Sluiucvsittj 
in  tltc  CCltij  of  3Xciu  XJovii 


crr^ 


i:iiu'j 


IWVj, 


» 


--■•■'"^.'s 

■£#;■- 

■r-.^ 


'I'M 


lU^  M  A  N  I S  M    A  N  I)    R  A  T 1 0  N  A  L  ISM 

AS   OPPOSED   TO    PURE 

CHRISTIANITY. 


JOHN  CAIRNS,  D.D. 


'^0«0  EXCHANC 

^/7 


Romanism  and  Rationalis 


M 


AS   OPPOSED    TO    PURE 


ALEXANDER  STRAHAN  AM)  CO 

Lontloft 

Fiiinburgh.    . 
lilnsgmv.    . 


32,  Lmigate  Ilili. 
35,  lla  v<n>er  Sttrtt. 
I.  Royal  Batik  rim  f. 


CHRISTIANITY 


r 


,        '         •  0 


BY 


JOHN   CAIRNS,    D.D. 

BERWICK. 


ALEXANDER   STRAHAN    AND   CO. 

LONDON   AND    EDINBURGIf. 

1863. 


K- 


'  3 


^ 


•  •  • 


•  • 


t   •     • 


•  •     •     I     ••  •..     ••    .  •    ' 


•  <  •  • 


••  •     • 
lit 


•  • 


.••      * 

••    ••'    •  • 

•  •  •  •  •  ' 

•  •    t  • 


M 


^ 


O 


PREFACE. 

The  following  Discourse  or  Lecture,  recently  de- 
livered at  the  instance  of  kindred  Societies,  first  in 
Olasgow  and  then  in  Edinburgh,  is  now  published  at 
their  joint  request.^  Both  Societies  are  made  up  of 
the  Sons  of  Ministers  of  the  United  Presbyterian 
Church,  who  combine  chiefly  to  render  help  to 
widows  and  fatherless  children  of  their  own  class ; 
and  both  have  been  already  productive  of  no  small 
amount  of  good.  Their  claims  may  be  pleaded 
on  many  grounds,  and  not  least  from  the  services 
rendered  by  the  ministers  of  that  Church,  during 
its  past  history,  to  evangelical  religion.  Few  de- 
nominations, it  is  believed,  have  hitherto  been  pre- 
served more  free  from  the  extremes  of  error  described 
in  the  following  Lecture ;  and  as  this  result,  under 
Ciod,  can  only  be  ascribed  to  Christian  teaching, 
there  arises  an  obligation  to  remember,  in  the  per- 

^  See  Appendix,  p.  53. 
A 


t' 


282055 


•   ».   ••   »  • , 


^''  Preface. 

sons  of  their  relatives,  those  faithful  men  who  have 
generally  speaking  received  no  superabundant  earthly 
recompense  of  their  labours.  If  the  origin  of  this 
publication  serve  in  any  degree  to  attract  denomina- 
tional attention  to  a  needful  object,  or  if  the  matter 
of  it  confirm  any  reader  in  those  vital  truths  which 
are  now  so  rudely  assailed  from  unexi)ected  (juarters, 
the  writer  will  be  abundantly  rewarded. 

In  conducting  the  argument  of  the  Lecture  itself, 
it  will  be  seen  that  no  one  author  has  been  selected 
for  special  animadversion.  It  has  been  judged  better 
to  deal  in  general  principles,  and  to  leave  the  truth 
to  be  its  own  witness. 

/Memfter  1862. 


>«  - 


s  • 

•  • 


» 


I 

•       I 
I  >     •  • 


I    • 


.  •  •  • 

:  • :  • 


•  •  •  *  • 


•  •  • 


•  •  ■  •  • 


:    1  I 
>    I    • 


:       J    >    ,  1    » 
>       3    •     .5    » 

»  c        •         1    • 


lit!      II,      ,*,      • 
I       I  »       ,      ,  • 

I        II  I   I  *  ».       » 


I  I 
5 


I      I 


•  «  •     «       •     •  • 


».  t 


•  III         t 

•  •      • 

•  (I 

t  t 

•  • 


Take  heed,  and  beware  of  the  leaven  oi  the  Pharisees  and 
of  the  Sadducees.' — Matt.  xvi.  6. 

HE  history  of  the  human  race,  consid- 
ered as  a  religious  development,  is  the 
history^  of  a  struggle  on  the  part  of  Un- 
belief and  Superstition  against  each 
other,  or  against  that  divine  form  of  religion  which  is 
appointed  to  supplant  both.  Man  is  inexplicable, 
on  any  system  of  philosophy  which  does  not  afford 
large  room  for  the  working  of  a  religious  element 
in  his  being ;  an  element  which,  never  long  dor- 
mant, may  at  any  time  awake,  and  awe  into  subjec- 
tion all  the  other  principles  of  his  nature.  There 
cannot  be  a  greater  misconception  of  Christianity 
than  to  imagine  that  for  the  first  time  it  introduces 
the  religious  principle  into  the  history  of  the  race, 
or  the  experience  of  the  individual,  and  invests  it 
with   authority.      There    is   a   belief  in    the   super- 


*  «     «    •  t 

etc     <    I 
c  •    f      : 


•  •    t 


»    .    I     .        t 


8         On  Rcrnamsnt  tn<i^Rational{s7n 


•  * 


•  * 


natural;  a  I'iiitn  in  Aings  inseen  and  future  before 
either  Moses  or  Christ ;  and   the  design  of  revela- 
tion is  not  to  create  in  man  a  religious  nature,  but 
to  rectify  and   control  that   religious   nature  which 
the  Fall  has  not  destroyed,  but  only  perverted  and 
cast  loose  from  its  true  centre.     The  religious  ten- 
dencies and  workings  of  fallen  humanity  may  all  be 
comprised  under  the  one  name  of  Superstition.—^. 
very  unhappy  nam.e,  as  it  throws  no  light  upon  the 
thing  itself,  but  which  may  become  significant  to  us 
if  we  regard  it  by  a  play  upon  its  Latin  etymology, 
as  denoting  the   wreck   of  religion   which  has    sur- 
vived  the   Fall.      Before   the    Fall,    man's   religious 
nature  and  tendencies  rested  in  their  proper  object, 
—a   (;od    tnily   known,    and    loved  both    for   what 
He  was  in  himself,  and  in  relation  to  the  creature. 
The  introduction  of  sin,   being  the  introduction   of 
darkness  and   error  into   man's   views  of  CJod,    de- 
stroyed love  to   Him,   as  seen   in   his   own    proper 
character;    and    as    the    Fall    also   necessitated    the 
assumption  of  a  hostile  or  penal  attitude  on  the  part 
of  God,  it   disturbed  the  flow  of  grateful   affection 
which  his  benefits  had  before  produced.     Light  and 
love,  the  twin  princii)les  of  i)rimeval  religion,   thus 
became  darkness  and  fear,   the  presiding  spirits  of 
man's  religion  in  his    fallen   state,   and    the  chosen 
agencies  whereby   the  dominion  usurped  over   him 
by   the    Tempter   was   confirmed.      The   true    God 


'S 


.  '\ 


as  opposed  to  P7i7x  Christianity.         9 

was  no  longer  known,  and  even  if  He  had  been 
known,  He  would  not  have  been  loved  through  the 
hardening  influence  of  transgression,  and  the  irri- 
tating eflect  of  penalties  upon  a  disobedient  nature. 
But  the  religious  principle  in  man  remained  active 
as  ever,  and  the  results  of  its  operation,  under  the 
twofold  influence  of  darkness  and  fear,  were  the 
manifold  forms  of  ancient  idolatry.  Many  theories 
have  been  framed  to  account  for  the  origin  of  idol- 
atry, such  as  these  :  that  the  gods  were  deified  men  ; 
that  they  were  personifications  of  the  powers  of 
nature  ;  or  that  they  were  the  creations  of  a  poetical 
fancy.  These  theories  are  all  radically  worthless, 
because  they  overlook  the  working  of  the  supersti- 
tious principle.  This  makes  it  inevitable  that  man 
should  have  a  religion,  and  equally  inevitable,  since 
he  cannot  create  a  religion  in  the  strict  sense,  that 
the  object  of  his  worship  should  be  the  original 
divine  character,  hidden  indeed  by  ignorance,  de- 
based to  the  likeness  of  man  himself,  and  even  of 
inferior  creatures,  and  withal  darkened  and  overcast 
by  fear,  but  everywhere  preserving  fragments  of  its 
original  unity,  vestiges  of  its  deep  truth,  and  shadows 
of  its  awful  majesty.  This  view,  which  I  cannot 
here  develop  at  greater  length,  will  explain  the 
idolatries  of  Egypt,  of  India,  and  the  East,  of  the 
classic  nations  of  Greece  and  Rome,  and  likewise 
the  paganism  of  the  Teutonic  races,  as  so  many  mis- 


I  o       On  Romanism  and  Rationalism 

readings  and  distorted  reminiscences  of  the  one 
aboriginal  faith  of  humanity.  The  institutions  of 
priesthood  and  sacrifice,  and  the  rites  of  lustration 
and  purification,  which,  of  course,  cannot  be  re- 
ferred to  man's  religion  before  the  Fall,  are  probably 
to  be  traced  to  the  usages  of  worship  appointed  by 
CJod  after  the  Fall,  which  were  practised  by  the 
founders  of  different  nations  according  to  tradition, 
and  then  handed  down  to  their  descendants  to  bJ 
misunderstood,  depraved,  and  caricatured  in  the 
growing  darkness. 

The    development    and    reign   of  superstition    i.^ 
the  prevailing  feature  in  the  religious  history  of  all 
nations.     But  there  gradually  arises— there  exists  in 
fact  from  the  beginning— an  antagonist  influence  by 
which   superstition    is    limited    and   held    in    check. 
This  is   Unbelief      It  manifests  itself  in  two  ver>' 
different  forms.      There  is  a  higher  unbelief  which 
attacks  what  is   false  in  superstition  ;  and  a  lower 
unbelief  which  attacks  what  is  true.     The  higher  is 
an  effort  of  the  religious  principle  to  purify  itself  by  . 
the  employment  of  reason.     It  lays  open  the  incon- 
sistency of  the  creed,  of  the  rites,  and  of  the  cere- 
monial  of    superstition    with    the    deeper    religious 
principles  on  which  it  is  itself  based,  and  attempts 
a  religious  reform  by  abridgment,  or  simplification, 
or  refinement  of  the  vulgar  faith.     Such  was  the  un- 
belief, or,  if  you  will,  the  rationalism  of  Socrates  and 


*v  ■ 


as  opposed  to  Pure  Christianity,        1 1 

his  successors,  in  relation  to  the  Greek  paganism, 
and  of  other  philosophers  who  flourished  still  later 
in  the  decline  of  the  Roman  Empire.  The  lower 
unbelief  again  attacks  even  what  is  true  in  super- 
stition, its  fear,  its  sense  of  guilt,  its  faith  in  the 
operation  of  unseen  avenging  powers  ;  and  not  liking 
to  retain  God  in  its  knowledge,  even  in  the  dwarfed 
and  degraded  representations  of  superstition,  seeks 
to  explode  all  faith  in  his  living  agency  and  in- 
fluential connexion  with  men.  Such  was  the  un- 
belief, or,  if  you  will  again,  the  rationalism,  only 
darker  and  more  ungenial,  of  Epicurus  and  his 
school,  of  the  sceptics,  and  of  many  eminent  per- 
sons, such  as  the  elder  Pliny,  in  the  later  ages  of 
ancient  heathenism. 

This  struggle  between  superstition  on  the  one 
side,  and  unbelief,  in  its  two  forms,  on  the  other, 
which  I  have  alluded  to  as  waged  on  the  field  of 
Greek  and  Roman  paganism,  has  been  carried  on 
more  or  less  in  every  false  religion  under  heaven. 
Sometimes  the  one  side  has  triumphed,  some- 
times the  other.  In  the  classical  world,  the  pre- 
valence of  literature,  on  the  whole,  gave  the  victory 
to  unbelief,  and  this  also  has  been  the  case  with  the 
modem  Chinese ;  whereas  the  Hindoo  system  of 
superstition  has  kept  its  ground  both  against  the 
serious  and  frivolous  rationalism  of  its  native  im- 
I)ugners.      In    the   Mahometan   religion,    as   is   well 


1 2        On  Romanism  and  Rationalism 

known,  there  has  been  the  same  opposition  of  the 
devotees  and  the  freethinkers,  though  the  latter  have 
always  been  in  the  minority.     Among  the  ancient 
Jews,  when  superstition,  adding  to  and  corrupting 
a  divine    but    imperfect  religion,   had   overlaid  and 
buried   it,  the  same  conflict  arose  between  the  dis- 
ciples of  superstition,  the  Pharisees,  and  the  leaders 
of  unbelief,  the  Sadducees ;  of  the  latter  of  whom  we 
cannot  but  believe  that  some  at  least  were  actuated, 
by  higher  than  mere  sceptical  motives,  and  had  the 
same  keen  sense  of  the  errors  of  tradition  which  is 
displayed  by  the  modern   Karaites   in  rejecting  the 
Talmud. 

One   of    the    most    melancholy   features    in    this 
struggle  of  superstition  and  unbelief  among  the  reli- 
gions of  nature,   is  the  total  impossibility,   by  any 
series  of  such  collisions  and  reactions,  of  restoring 
the  true  knowledge  and  worship  of  (Jod.      Before 
rationalism    could    effect    this  among  such   nations, 
two  things  would  be  necessar>' :  first,  that  a  super- 
stitious   system  should  contain  at  least  all  the  ele- 
ments of  the  true    religion,    and    then  that  reason 
should  be  able  to  separate  these  unerringly  from  the 
corrupt    admixtures    by   which   they   were    overiaid. 
Kach  of  these  conditions  is  manifestly  imj)ossible, 
and  it  has  even  been  found  that  the  higher  ration 
alism,  however  justly  applied,  by  shaking  the  faith 
of  the  vulgar  in  religious  notions  and  practices  which 


.'V 

n  '■i 


■vV\ 


as  opposed  to  Pure  Clu^istianity.       1 3 

rested  solely  on  tradition,  has  done  the  work  of  the 
lower  unbelief,  and  led  the  way  to  absolute  irreli- 
gion.     Then  again,  after  a  triumph  of  this  kind  more 
or  less   extended,   superstition  has  revived  through 
the  inherent  necessity  of  satisfying  in  some  shape 
the    religious  principle  ;   and  by  a  natural   reaction 
against   the  previous   indifference,   it  has  revived   in 
a   form  more    fantastic,    more    degrading,    or   more 
bloody  than  before.      New  conflicts   are  thus  pro- 
voked, and  the  result  is  that  superstition,  frequently 
wounded  and  sometimes  slain  and  buried,  puts  forth 
more  revolting  excrescences  in  place  of  its  lost  mem- 
bers, or  rises  from  the  dead  to  perform  more  strange 
and  portentous  antics  than  ever  upon  its  fresh  grave. 
In  the  midst  of  this  downward  progress  of  the  an- 
cient world,  with  a  frivolous  unbelief  ever  becoming 
more  impious,  a  generous  unbelief  ever  more  melan- 
choly and  despairing,  and  a  superstition  sitting  over 
against  both,  and,  like  the  priests  of  Baal,  invoking 
its   gods   with   more  fanatical  cries   and    barbarous 
lacerations,   the  great  remedy  was  introduced,  and 
the  religion  of  Jesus,  in  the  midnight  of  the  world's 
spiritual  history,  began  its  course.    The  gospel  was  at 
once  a  perfect  republication  of  the  original  religion — 
the  religion  of  man  as  a  creature  ;  and  was  a  final  de- 
velopment of  the  religion  of  mediation — the  religion  of 
man  as  a  sinner.     P^verything  that  was  precious  among 
the  relics  of  superstition  was  preserved  ;  while  the 


\ 


1 4        On  Romanism  and  Rationalism 

yearnings  and  longings  of  the  human  heart  for  de- 
liverance from  sin  and  return  to  God,  which  supersti- 
tion could  never  meet,  were  gloriously  satisfied.     The 
incarnate  Ood  at  once  revealed  and  reconciled  the 
Father;   and    became  the  way,   the  truth,   and  the 
life  ;  the  Light  of  the  nations,  the  universal  guide  of 
the  erring  into  the  paths  of  peace.      The  moral  basis 
of  superstition   was  thus  taken  away  ;   and,   at  the 
same  time,  while  everything  that  was  well  founded 
in  the  earlier  unbelief  was  conceded,  yet  such  was 
the   evidence,    both    external    and    internal,    of  the 
divinity  of  the  religion  of  Christ  which  it  brought  with 
it  into  the  world,  that  scepticism  also  lost  all  rational 
foundation.     Happy  would  it  have  been  for  mankind 
if,  when  the  darkness  thus  i)as.sed  away  and  the  true 
light  shone,  all  had  been  willing  to  walk  in  it  and  to 
continue  in  it,  persuaded  of  the  divine  origin  of  Chris- 
tianity, satisfied  with  its  simple  method  of  reconcilia- 
tion to  (^od  through  the  incarnation  and  sacrifice  of 
His  own  Son  ;  and  while  contented  with  nothing  less, 
aiming  at  nothing  more,  than  to  pay  the  grateful  debt 
of  obedience  to  the  God  of  redemption,  and  to  walk 
in  the  exercise  of  love,  and  the  performance  of  spiri- 
tual rites  of  worship  with  all   the  brotherhood  who 
had  been  thus  enlightened  and  sanctified.     But  alas ! 
the  very  depravity  of  human   nature  for  which   the 
gospel  was  the  cure,  not  only  hindered  the  action  of 
that  gospel,  but  reacted  upon  it,   to  deteriorate  its 


I 


as  opposed  to  Pnrc  Christianity.       1 5 

healing  properties ;  and  the  history  of  the  so-called 
Christian  world,  is  mainly  the  histoiy  of  the  joint 
attacks  of  superstition  and  unbelief  upon  Christianity; 
just  as  the  history  of  the  world  before  Christ  is  the 
history  of  their  attacks  on  one  another.  In  this  con- 
test we  cannot  allow  that  either  has  anv  truth  on  its 
side,  as  we  were  willing,  nay,  bound  to  do,  before  the 
advent  of  the  gospel.  P>ery  true  religious  want  of 
man  is  met  by  Christianity ;  and  there  is  no  room  for 
superstition  to  enlarge  with  its  human  and  incongruous 
additions.  Every  part  of  Christianity  is  divinely 
authenticated  and  symmetrically  coherent,  meeting 
some  religious  want ;  and  there  is  no  room  for  unbelief 
with  its  negative  criticisms  and  mutilations  to  take 
any  part  away.  Hence  we  shall  unhesitatingly  regard 
superstition  and  unbelief,  in  relation  to  Christianity, 
as  both  perverted  manifestations  ;  the  one  being 
more  the  perversion  of  the  heart  through  fear ;  the 
other,  the  perversion  of  the  understanding  through 
pride  ;  and  without  going  here  into  any  more  refined 
analysis  of  their  nature  and  tendency,  shall  speak  of 
them  as  while  both  radically  mistaking  Christianity, 
yet  mistaking  it  in  oi)posite  directions,  the  one  labour- 
ing more  to  corrupt  it  by  false  appendages,  the  other 
to  destroy  it  by  unauthorized  curtailments  and  sim- 
plifications. And  in  the  remainder  of  this  lecture, 
the  plan  which  I  shall  follow  is  to  select  the  salient 
aspects  of  Christianity  as  a  religion,  and  after  show- 


ftjMrWWiittwMMiihwyihliiii  litiilBllfMiBaBaaBiait 


1 6        0)1  Romanism  and  Rationalism 

ing  in  general  how  every  one  of  these  aspects  meets 
some  essential  religious  want  of  our  nature,  to  exhibit 
the  operation  of  the  two  hostile  influences  as  equally 
mistaking  the  gospel  provision  for  the  want  in  ques- 
tion, and  as  abridging  it  by  defect  or  overlaying  it  by 
excess.    I  shall,  in  this  lecture,  forbear  to  speak  of  any 
other  superstition  or  unbelief  than  wears  the  Chris- 
tian badge  and  name.     Hence  my  illustrations  must 
be  drawn  chiefly,  on  the  one  hand,  from  the  heresies 
of  the  Christian  Church,  these  being  mostly  products 
of  that  unbelief  which,  as  arising  from  the  false  appli- 
cation of  reason  in  rejecting  what  is  genuine  and  vital 
to  Christianity,  is  commonly  called  Rationalism;  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  from  the  corruptions  of  the  Church 
of  Rome,  which  is  the  finished  development  of  Super- 
stition.    It  is  not  a  sketch  which  I  am  to  attempt 
of  the  struggle  of  pure  Christianity  with  open  infi- 
delity, or  with  such  foreign  superstitions  as  Mahome- 
tanism  or  Mormonism  ;  but  of  the  intestine  war  with 
each  series  of  evils  within  her  own  pale. 

According  to  the  scheme  thus  laid  down,  I  shall 
now  i)roceed  to  consider  the  reaction  of  Rationalism 
and  Superstition  upon  Christianity,  in  four  points  of 
view  ;  first,  as  a  system  of  revelation ;  secojuily,  as  a 
system  of  mediation  ;  thirdly,  as  a  system  of  morality 
or  sanctification  ;  and,  fourthly,  as  a  system  of  spiri- 
tual association  and  fellowship. 


LI 


as  opposed  to  Pure  Clmstianity.       1 7 

I.  Look,  then,  first,  to  Christianity  as  a  system  of 
Rez'elatiofi.  If  anything  can  be  regarded  as  proved 
beyond  reasonable  dispute  by  the  history  of  the 
world's  religions,  it  is  the  necessity  of  some  revela- 
tion that  should  dispel  the  uncertainties  of  all  honest 
inquirers  respecting  God's  nature  and  designs,  and 
man's  duty  and  destiny,  and  correct  those  deplorable 
mistakes  into  which  few  will  deny  that  superstitious 
forms  of  religion  have  fallen.  Inhere  must  be  some 
voice  of  God,  some  oracle,  some  heaven-descended 
truth  superseding  all  other  oracles,  prophecies,  or 
alleged  divine  communications,  by  bearing  visibly  on 
its  front  that  evidence  of  celestial  birth  which  they 
cannot  produce.  Now  Christianity  is  such  a  revela- 
tion, proved  to  be  divine  by  its  indubitable  miracles 
and  prophecies,  by  its  godlike  tone  and  style,  and  by 
the  superhuman  greatness,  depth,  and  wisdom  of  its 
contents.  Further,  it  was  necessary  that  this  revela- 
tion should  be  in  a  book,  and  that  book  complete 
and  entire,  other\vise  there  would  have  been  no  defi- 
nite standard,  and  no  security  against  change  in  the 
transmission  of  the  divine  message  from  age  to  age. 
Now  the  Christian  Scriptures  form  such  a  book,  at- 
tested by  sufficient  evidence  to  be  the  genuine,  un- 
corrupted,  unmutilated  depository  of  such  a  revela- 
tion. And  once  more,  it  was  necessary  that  this  book, 
while  refusing  to  bend  to  human  reason,  should  be 
capable  of  interpretation  by  human  reason,  and  that 


1 8       On  Ro7na7iism  and  Rationalism 

of  every  individual  man,  as  a  message  from  God  to 
him,  for  the  understanding  and  right  use  of  which  he 
alone  was  responsible ;  and  such  a  book  the  Bible  is, 
asserting  its  own  absolute  infallibility,  and  yet  leaving 
its  interpretation  to  all  who  '  seek  out  the  law  of  the 
Lord  and  read.'     A  supernatural  communication,  a 
perfect  canon,  a  self-interpreting  Bible  :  these  seem 
to  be  the  three  great  wants  of  man  in  regard  to  reve- 
lation, which  Christianity,  as  a  system  of  revelation, 
fully  meets  and  satisfies. 

Look,  now,  at  the  way  in  which  Rationalism  and 
Superstition    have    in    turn   dealt   with    these   three 
foun(lation-i)rinciples  of  Christianity  as  a  revelation. 
Rationalism,  even  within  the  Church,  has  advanced 
so  far  as  to  deny  that  Christianity  is  a  communica- 
tion from  (;od  in  any  supernatural  sense  at  all.     1\, 
this  startling  length  the  divines   of  Geniiany,  com- 
monly called  Rationalistic,  while  professing  to  believe 
m  Chri.stianity  as  from  Cod,  have,  for  more  than  half 
a  century,  now  gone.     It  is  the  first  time,  so  far  as  I 
am  aware,  in  the  history  of  Christianity,  that  such  a 
denial  has  been  connected  with  the  Christian  profes- 
sion ;   and   that  alleged  disciples  of  Jesus  and  his 
apostles  have  maintained  that  he  and  they  only  spoke 
in   God's  name  as  Zoroaster  or  Mahomet,   or  any 
other  person  of  strong  natural  religious  temperament 
and  sensibilities.     This  denial  of  all  miraculous  in- 
fluence at  the  birth  of  Christianity  has  found  favour 


as  opposed  to  Pure  Christianity.       1 9 

with  some  of  our  English  Unitarians,  as  well  as  with 
their  brethren  in  America  ;  and  it  almost  seems  as  if 
the  disciples  of  Priestley  and  Channing,  who,  whatever 
their  other  shortcomings,  at  lea.st  held  Jesus  for  the 
divinely-inspired  prophet  of  immortality  and  some- 
thing more,  were  about  to  discard  their  old  teachers, 
and  to  regard  the  Saviour  as  divested  not  only  of 
divinity,  but  of  divinely-enlightened  humanity,  at 
least  humanity  divinely  enlightened  in  any  other 
sense  than  were  Socrates  and  Plato,  or  the  idols  of 
modem  hero-worship,  whose  names  I  shrink  from 
pronouncing  in  conjunction  with  His  who  comes  from 
heaven,  and  is  above  all. 

While  Rationalism  has  only  lately,  and  in  certain 
(juarters,  among  which  I  grieve  to  have  to  speak  of 
the  Church  of  England,  proceeded  to  cast  off  alto- 
gether the  supernatural  claims  of  Christianity,  it  has 
long,  and  in  many  directions,  endeavoured  to  shake 
the  authority  of  the  received  Bible  as  in  all  its  parts 
an  authentic  record  and  perfect  canon.  I  shall  not 
enter  into  details  on  this  subject.  Generally  speak- 
ing, for  it  would  be  uncandid  to  make  the  assertion 
universal,  the  denial  of  the  canonical  authority  of  cer- 
tain parts  of  the  Bible  has  sprung  from  a  reluctance 
to  accept  their  testimony  to  doctrines  opposed  to 
Rationalism.  Thus,  as  the  Sadducees  of  old  rejected 
the  books  posterior  to  those  of  Moses,  because  they 
taught  the  doctrine  of  a  future  life,  so  the  Ebionites  of 


20        On  Romanism  and  Rationalis7n 

the  second  century  disowned  the  opening  chapters  of 
Matthew  and  Luke  because  they  taught  our  Lord's 
miraculous  conception,  which  these   reHgionists  de- 
nied ;  and  nothing  has  been  more  common  than  for 
the   so-called   Rational   divines  of  Ciermany,  though 
here  there  have  been  honourable  exceptions,  to  set 
aside  books  from  the  canon  in  the  face  of  all  evidence, 
because  destructive  of  their  tenets,  just  as  a  jur)man 
is  summarily  challenged  by  a  counsel  because  sus- 
pected of  an  adverse  leaning.     Of  this  practice,  un- 
happily, Luther  set  an  example  in  rejecting  the  epistle 
of  James,  because  he  falsely  supposed  it  to  be  incon- 
sistent with  justification  by  grace ;  and  this  unwarrant- 
able act  of  his  in  this  department,  like  the  burning 
of  Servetus  by  Calvin,  has  drawn  after  it  a  long  train 
of  evils,  his  name  being  employed  to  sanction  on  the 
Continent  such  wanton  ejection  of  books  and  parts 
of  books  from  the  sacred  Scriptures,  as  Luther  would 
have  been  the  last  to  rank  within  the  bounds  of  fair 
inquiry  and  historical  criticism. 

But  Rationalism  not  only  denies  the  inspired  autho- 
rity of  the  Scriptures  in  general,  or  mutilates  and 
abridges  them  by  false  j)rocesses  of  criticism  :  it 
exalts  reason  to  a  place  in  the  interpretation  of  what 
remains  and  is  acknowledged  to  be  authentic,  incon- 
sistent with  submission  to  the  mind  of  (iod.  If  the 
starting-point  or  elementary  idea  of  revelation  is 
denied,  it  is  not  easy  to  allow  the  Bible  to  speak  its 


as  opposed  to  Pui'c  Clwistianity,      2 1 

own  language.  What  is  supernatural  and  mysterious 
is  in  danger  of  being  explained  away,  and  the  testi- 
mony of  the  Creator  adjusted  to  the  preconceived 
notions  of  his  creatures.  Thus  how  often  has  it 
been  attempted  even  by  Christian  divines  to  explain 
the  fall  of  man  as  an  allegory,  and  the  temptation  of 
our  Lord  as  a  vision  ;  to  account  for  the  miracles  of 
Moses,  at  least  the  passage  of  the  Red  Sea,  and  the 
descent  of  the  manna  in  the  desert,  on  natural  prin- 
ciples ;  and  to  resolve  such  moral  miracles  as  the 
conversion  of  Paul  into  the  reaction  of  the  mind  from 
one  extreme  to  the  other.  It  is  matter  of  notorietv 
that  eminent  professors  of  Christian  theology  in  (Ger- 
many, sincere  after  their  kind,  have  represented  our 
Lord's  death  on  the  cross  as  only  a  swoon  Ironi 
which  he  recovered  in  the  grave,  and  that  otiiers, 
in  some  respects  orthodox,  have  endeavoured  to 
render  his  mighty  works  more  credible  by  sup- 
posing him  to  be  endowed  with  an  extraordinary 
gift  of  animal  magnetism.  Some  j^rophecies  arc 
admitted  to  deserve  the  name,  but  others  are  re- 
jected as  recjuiring  too  great  a  strain  on  faith  ;  and 
everywhere  the  mental  habit  of  these  divines,  like 
a  spring  pressed  down,  tends  to  throw  oft'  the  load  of 
revelation  externally  cast  upon  it.  As  an  example  of 
how  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  the  Bible  are  likewise 
diluted  or  rejected,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  the 
eminent  writer  De  Wette,  who  latterly  recoiled  from 

B 


y<r!%i 


22       On  Roma7iis7n  aiid  Rationalism 

his  earlier  extremes,  maintains  that  there  can  be  no 
atonement,  because  the  Prodigal  Son  is  represented 
as  received  without  any  ;  though  he  might  quite  as 
well  have  maintained  from  that  i)arab]e,  that  men  re- 
turn to  (;od  without  any  solicitation  from  Him  at  all. 
So  is  it  with  other  doctrines  :  Satan   is   an   oriental 
metaphor  ;  the  Spirit  of  God  is  a  personification  and 
not  a  person  ;  and  sin  is  a  necessary  transition  from 
a  lower  to  a  higher  moral  state,  which,  when  it  has 
served  its  purpose,  shall  be  done  away  by  Christ  in 
all  creatures.     Thus  what  we  regard  as  the  plainest 
doctrines  of  the    Bible   are   overruled   and   counter- 
checked  by  violent  inten)retation.      Rationalism,  for 
the  most  part,  does  not  dare  to  say  '  That  is  the  Bible 
doctrine,  and  it  is  absurd  ;'  for  this  is  the  watchword 
of  infidelity,  though  even  here  Rationalism  and  infi- 
delity have  lately  shaken  hands.      It  generally  says, 
'  If  that  were  the  Bible  doctrine  it  would  be  absurd  ;' 
and  then  it  proceeds  to  torture  the  plain  language,  to 
read  between  the  lines,  and  to  look  at  all  the  pecu- 
liarities of  Christianity  with  the  diminishing  end  of 
the   telescope,   until    mountains    become   moie-hills ; 
and  the   only  remaining   wonder   is,    that   strains  so 
magnilo(iucnt  should  l)e  employed  by  sacred  writers 
to  adorn  such   feebleness  and   commonplace   as  re- 
mains when  the  rugged  grandeur  of  revelation   has 
vanished.     On  this  subject  a  volume  might  be  written, 
and  it  would  be  a  very  melancholy  one.     The  most 


as  opposed  to  Pure  Christianity, 


23 


strained  and  unnatural  constructions  ever  put  by  spe- 
cial pleaders  upon  human  laws  have,  I  grieve  to  say 
it,  been  exceeded  in  these  interpretations  of  what  is 
still  called  the  Word  of  Cod  ;  and  the  Christian 
Church  still  suffers  from  this  refusal  to  accept  the 
ordinary  and  literal  meaning  of  Scripture  as  that 
which  God  intended,  when  he  made  use  of  human 
language,  and  directed  his  inspired  agents  to  use  all 
plainness  of  speech. 

If  we  now  turn  from  this  misuse  of  die  revealed 
Word,  we  shall  see  how  widely  superstition  has  erred 
on  the  opposite  side.  If  Rationalism  leaves  only  a 
minimum  of  inspiration,  superstition  in  the  Church 
of  Rome  affords  a  sur|)lus.  The  fatal  error  of  that 
Church,  so  far  as  Scripture  is  concerned,  conssts  in 
claiming  for  the  Church  in  all  ages  that  inspiration 
which  only  belonged  to  the  days  of  prophets  and 
apostles.  Hence,  three  signal  mistakes  exactly  oppo- 
site to  those  of  Rationalism.  Yox^first^  the  inspired 
Bible  is  received  not  on  the  ground  of  its  own  sui)er- 
natural  evidence,  but  because  the  Church  vouches  for 
it  as  the  Word  of  (Jod.  And  scavidly,  the  Church  in 
the  exercise  of  this  usur|)ed  |)ower  has  seriously  cor- 
rupted the  Bible  which  it  professes  to  guard,  adding 
to  it  the  legends  of  the  Apocryi)ha,  and  sanctioning 
all  the  errors  and  mistranslations  of  the  Vulgate  as 
of  equal  value  with  the  original,  and  further  exalting 
to  a   co-ordinate   rank    with    the   written  Word  the 


24      On  Romanisvt  and  Rationalism 

whole  mass  of  tradition  as  floating  in  ecclesiasticaf 
usage,  or  as  embmlied  in  the  canons  of  councils,  sa 
that  the  Romanist  Bible  is  voluminous,  unfixed,  and 
infinite,  comparable  almost  to  a  Serbonian   bog,  in 
which  the  true  Scripture  is  dragged  down  and  sunk, 
by    the    leaden   and    eanhy   matters  to   which    it    is 
attached.     And  tliirMy,    the   Church   denies  to  this 
Bible,  thus  placed  on  a  wrong  foundation,  and  thus 
falsely  enlarged,  all  power  of  self-interpretation,  and 
refuses  to  her  laity  and  even  her  inferior  clergy  all 
unfettered  liberty  to  read  it,  and  much  more  to  judge 
of  its  meaning  for  themselves,  reserving  to  the  infal- 
lible  oracle  in   the   Church,   wherever  that   may  be 
situated,  the  exclusive  ix)wer  of  determining  its  sense, 
unbound  by  any  rules  or  principles  of  ordinar>^  inter- 
pretation which  they  are  competent  to  apply  in  self- 
defence.     It  thus  appears  that  Rationalism  and  super- 
stition,  starting   from   diametrically  opposite   i)oints, 
tend  to  almost  the  same  result  so  far  as  the  .strict  idea 
of  revelation  is  concerned.     The  last  word  of  the  one 
i.s,  "  'I'he  Bible  is  not  wanted  f  the  last  word  of  the 
other  is,  ''  'I'he  Bible  is  not  sufticient."     Both  agree 
m  denying  its  authority,  its  perfection,  and  its  use. 
Both  invest  it  with  the  honours  of  royalty  ;  and  then 
retract  the  homage,  while  they  smite  it  and  lacerate 
it  and  pierce  its  most  sensitive  organs,  leaving  it,  in- 
deed, the  name  of  a  revelation,  but  denying  it  the 
reverence  due  to  a  final  and  conclusive  message  from 


'■} 


as  opposed  to  Pnrc  Christianity,       25 

(rod.  There  is  no  remedy  for  these  evils  in  the 
struggle  of  Rationalism  and  Superstition  w^ith  one 
another.  They  will  never  compromise  their  differ- 
ences in  a  just  assent  to  the  claims  of  the  Bible  as 
the  middle  term  between  them.  That  just  assent — 
in  other  words.  Christian  faith — can  only  come  from 
a  higher  region  ;  and  till  the  Spirit  of  God  be  poured 
out  to  enlighten  men  in  their  need  of  a  message  from 
heaven,  and  to  open  their  eyes  to  the  claims  of  the 
pure  unadulterated  Word,  so  long  will  Rationalism 
and  Superstition  pass  the  Bible  by  on  opposite  sides, 
or  only  appeal  to  it  to  confirm  the  dictates  of  reason, 
or  to  strengthen  the  foregone  conclusions  of  autho- 
rity. There  is  this  point  of  accordance  in  their  ap- 
parent conflicts — a  common  preference  of  the  human 
to  the  divine,  and  it  would  be  to  take  an  unphiloso- 
phical  view  of  human  nature  to  imagine  that  these 
forces  will  ever  neutralize  each  other,  like  the  height 
of  one  wave  and  the  hollow^  of  another,  so  as  to  leave 
a  smooth  sea  whereon  the  bark  of  revelation  may 
glide  along  to  convey  its  heaven-sent  treasures. 

II.  The  second  aspect  of  })ure  Christianity  in  which 
I  now  proceed  to  consider  the  joint  effects  of  Ra- 
tionalism and  Superstition  upon  it,  is  as  a  system  of 
Mediation.  The  mediatorial  scheme  is  the  essence  of 
Christianity.  '  No  man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but 
l)v  me/     To  us  'there  is  one  Cod,  and  one  Mediator 


26      On  Romanism  and  Ratmialism 

t)etvveen  God  and  men,  the  man  Christ  Jesus.'     The 
deep-felt  want  of  mediation  in  the  human  breast  is 
written  on  the  history  of  all  false  religions,  and  is  the 
great  truth  which  they  all  embody.      Priests,  sacrifices, 
intercessors,  solemn  rites  of  prayer  by  selected  indivi- 
duals holier  than  their  fellows,  are  all  due  to  this  felt 
derangement  of  man's  relations  to  God,  and  are  an 
imperfect  kind  of  mediation— a  deep  confession  of 
the  neetl  of  it  rising  from  the  inmost  heart  of  human- 
ity.     Perhaps   it   may  be  said  without   })resumption, 
that  no  revelation  would  meet  man's  need,  if  it  did 
not  provide  three  things:  a  genuine  scheme  of  media- 
tion, a  scheme  visibly  complete,  and  a  scheme  easily 
available.     These  three  (qualifications   are  united  in 
the  Bible  system.     There  is  a  genuine  mediation  by 
the  incarnation  of  the  Son  of  (k)d  as  God's  delegate 
and  man's  representative.     There  is  a  visible  com- 
I)leteness  in  his  work  as  Mediator,  for  his  obedience 
and  sufferings  stand  in  relation  to  (lod  as  a  full  and 
perfect  sacrifice  and  atonement,  the  eflicacy  of  which 
is  no  mystery-,  but  obviously  rests  on  his  dignity  as 
(iod,   imparting   to    his    righteousness    an    unlimited 
vvorth  for  man's  redemption.     And  there  is  the  most 
direct  availableness  of  this  work  of  the  Mediator  for 
acceptance  with  (lod,  inasmuch  as  it  is  the /?//// of 
the  sinner,  and   not  any  more  difiicult   recjuirement 
which  is  laid  down  as  the  means  of  justification.     An 
incarnate  (lod,  a  perfect  righteousness,  a  free  justifi- 


as  opposed  to  Pure  Christiaiiity, 


27 


■m& 


cation  ;  this  is  the  glorious  threefold  cord  of  the 
Bible  system  of  mediation.  Observe  now  how  Ra- 
tionalism loosens  the  fibres  of  that  cord,  and  how 
Superstition,  seeking  to  incorporate  and  interweave 
fresh  threads  with  them,  in  eftect  e(iually  destroys 
their  texture.     And  first  of  Rationalism. 

Rationalism  denies  and  eliminates  from  the  Bible 
the  true  and  proper  basis  of  mediation — the  divinity 
of  the  Mediator.  Hence  result  all  the  forms  of  the 
Arian  heresy,  as  this  prevailed  in  the  fourth  and  fifth 
centuries  in  the  ancient  churches ;  in  the  beginning 
of  the  eighteenth  century  in  England,  both  in  the 
Church  and  among  Dissenters ;  and  on  the  Continent, 
in  France,  Germany,  and  Holland,  to  our  own  times. 
Socinianism  is  but  the  logical  result  of  the  Arian  pre- 
mises, and  hardly  does  more  violence  to  Scripture, 
while  it  pays  more  homage  to  reason.  The  modes 
of  belief  which  corrupt  the  great  doctrine  of  the  In- 
carnation are  mnumeral)le.  But  they  all  ecjually  con- 
rtict  with  mediation  in  the  true  and  proper  sense.  \{ 
it  be  not  God  himself  that  has  laid  hold  of  humanity 
in  the  person  of  Christ,  the  gulf  is  not  overleaped. 
There  is  a  show  of  mediation  ;  but  there  is  after  all 
nothing  but  higher  creatures  exerting  themselves  for 
lower,  and  they  do  not  efiectually  lay  their  hand 
either  on  the  offended  Ciod  or  the  offending  sinner. 

Further^  Rationalism  destroys  the  visible  complete- 
ness of  Christ's  mediation  by  mutilating  the  Scripture 


2^       On  Romanism  and  Ratioiialism 

doctrine  of  atonement.     This  has  been  done  in  a 
great  variety  of  ways.     Either  the  atonement  is  in 
substance  denied,  and  then  Christ  is  a  mere  prophet 
or  king,  a  sufferer  but  not  an  atoner,   which  is  the 
common  Socinian  doctrine ;  or  the  atonement  is  re- 
presented as  a  display  simply  of  love   without  any 
vindication  of  justice,  which  is  the  view  of  the  German 
divine  Schleiermacher  and  his  followers,  and  of  Mr. 
Maurice  and  others  among  ourselves ;  or  it  is  regarded 
as  a  suffering  for  sinners  accei)ted  for  them  by  Cxod's 
mere  good  will    and   pleasure,   without    any   visible 
reason    for   its   employment,   the    opinion    of   many 
Knglish  divines  of  the  last  century.    Now,  it  is  obvious 
that   in    all    these   cases,    the    essential    property  of 
atonement,  the  bearing  of  i)enal  displeasure  against 
sin  ])y  a  substitute  qualified  to  bear  it,  is  left  out  ;  and 
not  less  the  rendering  of  honour  to  the  law  by  the 
obedience  of  such  a  substitute.     The  doctrine  of  a 
moral  adaptation  in  the  sufferings  and  obedience  of 
a  divine  person,  who  acts  as  a  substitute  for  sinners, 
to  lay  the  foundation  of  their  escape  from  wrath  and 
admission  to  glor>-,  is  repudiated  or  slurred  over  ;  and 
thus  there  is  no  visible  completeness  in  the  Mediator's 
work,    no   point  of  repose  for   a  guilty  conscience, 
nothing  to  justify  the  cry  of  victory  on  the  cross,  '  It 
is  finished  !'  or  to  make  the  way  into  the  holiest  of 
all   more  manifest.      Christ   is  the  herald  of  recon- 
ciliation, but  not  the  author  of  it ;  or  if  the  nominal 


as  opposed  to  Pure  Christianity,       29 

author,  there  is  no  coherence  between  His  work  and 
its  results. 

The  third  essential  property  of  the  Bible  scheme  of 
mediation,  as  not  only  genuine  and  visibly  complete, 
but  likewise  easily  available,  is  also  compromised  by 
a  Rationalistic  theology.     Instead  of  immediate  and 
free  justification,  on  the  ground  of  the  atonement  and 
righteousness  of  the  Mediator,  Rationalism  brings  in 
more  difficult,  and,  indeed,  impracticable  conditions. 
For  grace,  it  substitutes  merit  ;  for  faith,  works  ;  and 
the  less  that  it  gives  to  the  Mediator  the  more  does 
it  ascribe  to  the  sinner;  either  the  performance  of  the 
duties  of  a  mitigated  law,  which  Christ  has  died  to 
lower,  or  sincere  obedience  to  the  law  as  the  means 
of  being  benefited  by  the  work  of  Christ,  or  at  least 
the   exertion   of  faith   as  a  meritorious  work,  which 
from  its  own  virtue  justifies  the  soul.     Thus  the  avail- 
ableness  of  Christ's  mediation  as  open  to  all  from  the 
beginning,  and  as  requiring  only  a  simple  act  of  re- 
liance   to   place  every   believer   under   its    gracious 
shadow,  is  fatally  interfered  with  ;  and  the  essential 
freeness  of  justification,  the  living  pulse  of  the  apos- 
tolic Christianity,  and  the  vital  breath  of  the  revived 
gospel  of  the  Reformation,  is  so  clogged  and  pressed 
down  by  the  dead  weight  of  self-righteousness,  that 
the  gosi)el  becomes  another  gospel,  and  ceases  to  be 
the  gospel  of  Christ. 

So  much  for  the  blindness  of  Rationalism  to  all  that 


JO      On  Ro7na7t{sm  and  Ratmialism 

is  distinctive  and  glorious  in  the  gospel  scheme  of 
mediation,  as  regards  its  basis,  its  essence,  and  its 
mode  of  being  turned  to  account.     Not  less  injuri- 
ously does  Superstition  misconstrue  and  pervert  this 
grand    system.       It    cannot    be   said,    indeed,    that 
Romanism,  which  may  here  be  taken  as  the  type  of 
all  other  superstitions,  denies  and  sets  aside  in  express 
words,  the  Mediator,  any  more  than  it  denies   and 
sets  aside  the  Bible.     Hut  with  its  uniform  fatal  ten- 
dency to  add  and  su|)plement,  it  obscures  and  virtually 
nullifies  the  essence  of  Christianity.     There  \<^  first,  a 
fundamental  doubt  in  the  entire  Romish  system  of  the 
Kmuineriess  of  Christ's  mediation,  a  doubt  opposite  to 
that  of  Rationalism  ;  for  while  Rationalism  explains 
away  the  Saviours  divinity,   Romanism  mistrusts  his 
humanity,  and  introduces  the  Virgin,  the  saints,  and 
even  the  angels,  as  nearer  and  more  familiar  mediators 
than  Christ,  which  would  be  utterly  impossible  if  the 
doctrine  of  his  true  manhood  were  held  in  its  fresh 
simplicity,  according  to  the  IJible  representations  of 
the  incarnation,     'i'he  deepest  principle  of  supersti- 
tion thus  comes  to  light— distrust  of  Cod  ;  and  hence 
(rodhead  coming  near  in  Christ  arrayed  in  the  living 
and   wami  attractions  of  human  love  is  disbelieved 
and  recoiled  from,  and  the  natural  heart  still  seeks  to 
l)reak  the  awful  distance,  by  throwing  in  other  media- 
torial agents  at  successive  intervals.     On  another  side 
the  same  doubt  of  the  genuineness  of  mediation  is 


as  opposed  to  Piux  Christianity,      3 1 

expressed  in  the  place  assigned  to  the  priesthood. 
The  felt  need  of  something  human  between  man  and 
God,  in  addition  to  the  humanity  of  Jesus,  obviously 
discredits  that  humanity,  and  thus  militates  against 
the  true  faith  of  the  incarnation. 

Not  less  is  the  visible  completeness  of  the  Media- 
tor's work  imi)erilled  and  vitally  injured  by  Romish 
superstition.  I  need  not  dwell  on  a  subject  so  well 
known  as  the  so-called  sacrifice  of  the  Mass.  The 
other  mis-shapen  features  of  that  tenet  I  shall  not 
touch  on.  I  only  remark  that  the  doctrine  of  Tran- 
substantiation,  which  is  so  far  a  counterfeit  of  the 
mystery  of  the  Incarnation,  visibly  imports  that  that 
incarnation  once  for  all  was  not  complete;  and  that  the 
offering  up  of  this  transubstantiated  Christ  in  alleged 
sacrifice  by  a  self-styled  priesthood,  as  visibly  imports 
that  his  offering  of  himself  on  the  cross  once  for  all 
was  no  valid  and  conclusive  atonement.  The  repeti- 
tion of  the  sacrifice  as  under  Judaism  is  a  confession 
of  its  incompetency  ;  and  the  so-called  elevation  of 
the  Saviour  in  the  host  is  thus  in  truth  his  deepest 
degradation.  His  righteousness  also,  as  the  ground 
of  justification,  is  fatally  trenched  on  by  the  ascription 
to  the  Church  of  a  treasury  of  merit,  such  as  the 
supererogatory  works  of  saints ;  and  thus,  partly  by 
the  sacrificial  repetition,  or  I  had  almost  said  travesty 
of  His  own  work,  and  partly  by  the  juxtaposition  of  the 
works  of  creatures  with  his,  the  glorious    complete- 


32        On  Romanism  and  Rationalism 

ness  of  his  divine  atonement  and  obedience,  as  the 
essence  of  mediation  and  the  basis  of  hope,  is 
almost  as  entirely  hid  from  view  as  in  the  systems  of 
Rationahsm. 

Not  less  mournfully,  perhaps  even  more  so,  is  the 
availablcuess  of  Christ's   mediation  compromised  in 
the  Church  of  Rome.     Something  of  the  nature  of  a 
personal   atonement    is  recjuired    in  order  to  be  in- 
terested in  that  of  Christ ;  penance,  fasts,  austerities, 
bead-rolls  of  prayer  here,  and  purgatorial  fires  here- 
after.    Further,  justification  is  adjourned  to  a  distant 
day,  until  the  sinner  be  advanced  in  goodness  ;  and 
in  order  to  afford  the  possibility  of  a  beginning  and 
continuance  of  this  development  he  must  first  come 
to  the  Church  before  he  can  reach  the  Saviour ;  and 
he  can  obtain  the  seed  of  grace  which  will  grow  up 
and  issue  in  his  justification  through  her  sacramental 
rites  alone.     The  most  superficial  observer  can  dis- 
cern   how  utterly   destructive    this   legal    and    ritual 
justification  is  of  the  free  grace  of  the  gosi)el  :  and 
will  notice  how  extremes  meet— the   Rationalist  re- 
coiling from  the  cross  as  needless,  and  falling  back 
on  good  works  as  his  hope,  the   Romanist    turning 
back  from  it  as  insufficient,  and  alighting  ui)on  the 
same  makeshift,  which  is,  indeed,  the  only  resource  of 
our  blinded  nature.      Heathenism    thus  returns  into 
Christianity  under  two  kindred  forms.     The  Rational- 
ist says,   *  Man  must  obey  God    for  his  own   salva- 


^1^ 


><s^ 


1^ 


as  opposed  to  Pure  Christianity.       i^i^ 

tion  ;'  the  Romanist,  '  Man  must  suffer  for  himself 
ere  he  can  be  saved.'  The  basis  of  the  one  is 
groundless  confidence  before  God  ;  the  basis  of  the 
other  is  groundless  fear  before  him ;  but  they  alike 
displace  God's  own  scheme  of  mediation,  and  substi- 
tute for  it,  as  a  more  effectual  expedient,  the  efforts 
or  the  sufferings  of  man  himself,  thus  recalling  the 
weak  and  beggarly  elements  of  i)aganism,  which  the 
appearance  of  Christ  was  designed  for  ever  to  suj)er- 
sede  and  sweep  away. 

III.  I  now  proceed  to  speak  of  Christianity  in  the 
tJiird  j)lace  as  a  system  of  Morality,  and  shall  endea- 
vour to  be  still  more  brief  than  under  the  foregoing 
heads.  What  man  needs,  and  what  the  Bible  presents, 
is  a  system  of  morality  which  shall  begin  with  ade- 
(luate  correctives  to  man's  felt  depravity,  which  shall 
supply  irresistible  motives  to  obedience,  and  which 
shall  present  a  perfect  rule  or  standard  of  excellence. 
The  grand  agent  by  whom  depravity  is  corrected  is 
the  Holy  Spirit.  The  grand  motive  to  obedience  is 
the  love  of  Christ.  The  grand  rule  of  perfection  is  the 
moral  law,  enjoining  supreme  love  to  God  and  e(}ual 
love  to  man.  None  of  these  grand  principles  of 
evangelical  Christianity  but  has  suffered  sore  damage 
at  the  hands  both  of  Rationalism  and  Superstition. 
Here  I  shall  look  at  their  effects  simultaneously,  and 
not,  as  before,  in  succession. 


34       On  Romanism  and  Rationalism 

The  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  the  only  source 
of  regenerate  character,  the  only  adequate  corrective 
of  man's  fallen  tendencies,  has  been  almost  universally 
denied  or  overlooked  by  a  Rationalistic  Christianity. 
It  was  so  in  the  Pelagianism  of  the  fourth  century;  and 
in  that  period  of  English  Church  history  which  preceded 
Methodism,  and  of  Scottish  Church  history  known  by 
the  name  of  Moderate,  the  same  dei)lorable  omission 
very  generally  })revailed.     The  Christian  virtues  were 
expected  to  grow  upon  the  stock  of  nature  ;  and  any 
change  corresponding  to  the  Bible  ideas  of  conver- 
sion, such  as  a  new  birth,  a  new  creation,  a  resurrec- 
tion from  the  dead,  was  decried  as  in  the  last  degree 
mystical,  enthusiastic,  and  fanatical.     Now  this  Bible 
mystery  which  Rationalism  then  sought  to  cut  away, 
Romanism  has  unnaturally  overlaid  and  exaggerated. 
The   need    of  such   a  change  is   not  denied  in  that 
Church  :  on  the  contrary  it  is  insisted  on  ;  but  then 
unhappily  it  is  bound  and  tied  down  to  the  outward 
forms  of   the  Church,  more  esi)ecially   to  baptism  ; 
and  the  dogma  of  baptismal  regeneration  is  the  result. 
It  is  not  saying  too  much  to  affirm  that  this  doctrine 
in  all  its  parts,  which  arrogates  for  an  ai)ostolicallv 
descended  priesthood  the  ])Ower  infiillibly  to  transmit 
the  Holy  Ghost  by  external  channels,  is  as  injurious 
a  claim  with  regard  to  that  blessed  agent  as  the  pro- 
fession to  transubstantiate  bread  and  wine  into  the 
body  and  blood,  soul  and  divinitv  of  the  Saviour  is 


as  opposed  to  Pure  Christianity. 


'.."J^. 


1-- 


■■>X 

•     'v.  r 
-■'..!.■ 

■m 

.-  *>■ 

.■^^, 

A 
-  J. 

■mi 
■■.=M 


■  1 

f',">'- 
■-«'■ 


with  regard  to  Christ.  And  the  result  here  is  the  same 
as  there,  for  superstition  grasping  at  too  much  secures 
nothing  ;  and  as  the  bloodless  sacrifice  of  the  mass 
has  no  power  to  take  away  sins,  as  its  own  repetition 
shows,  so  the  regeneration  of  water  has  no  power  to 
change  the  heart,  as  the  absence  of  external  fruits, 
and  even  the  apostasy  of  persons  thus  regenerated 
notoriously  testifies;  and  thus  the  likeliest  eftect  of  the 
o/>/^s  opera  turn,  the  legerdemain  of  the  spiritual  magi- 
cian, is  to  seal  up  its  subjects  in  unregenerate  security. 
It  is  hard  to  say  whether  a  regeneration  disclaimed 
by  Rationalism,  or  a  regeneration  materialized  by 
Superstition,  is  the  most  injurious  misreading  of  pure 
Christianity.  The  same  remarks  apply  to  all  the 
other  sacraments  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  in  which 
the  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  admitted  in  words,  is 
ignored  in  practice,  and  a  meaningless  external  cere- 
mony called  a  sacrament,  which  renews  nothing,  cor- 
rects nothing,  is  dignitied  with  the  name  of  a  channel 
of  sanctification. 

The  influences  of  the  Spirit,  in  their  genuine  sense, 
being  thus  al)slracted  from  Christianity,  its  motives  to 
holitiess  fare  no  better.  The  grand  and  stupendous 
motive  of  gratitude  which  runs  through  the  whole 
Bible,  and  is  expressed  in  the  words,  '  We  love  him, 
because  he  first  loved  us,'  has  almost  no  place,  either 
in  Rationalism  or  Romanism.  Rationalistic  Chris- 
tianity can  only  expatiate  on  the  dignity  of  virtue,  the 


36 


On  Roma7iism  and  Rationalism 


as  opposed  to  Ptn^c  Christianity,       37 


prospect  of  reward,  the  certainty  of  punishment,  and 
other  weak  and  inefficient   commonplaces  of  pagan 
ethics,  or  at  best  borrow  some  gleams  of  light  and 
warmth  from  the  example  and  human  sympathy  of  the 
Saviour,  which  shed  over  the  wintry  scene   nothing 
better  than  the  glow  of  a  December  sun,  and  cannot 
break  up  its  frost-bound  rigours.    While,  on  the  other 
hand,  Romanism,  though  admitting  the  Saviour's  work 
on  the  cross,  and  even  in  its  hymns  celebrating  his 
love,  ])laces  its  votaries  at  such  a  distance  from  its 
warm  breath,  behind  the  freezing  barrier  of  Church 
rites  and  works  of  righteousness,  that  the  impression 
of  gratitude    is   too  faint  to  melt  the  heart,  and  is 
speedily  overcome  by  the  severities  of  penance,  the 
terrors  of  purgator)',   and   the   gloom   of  judgment, 
which  speak  a  j)ardon  not  yet  bestowed,  a  heaven 
not  yet  opened  up  by  the  shedding  of  Christ's  blood. 
The  fatal  postponement  of  justification  in  the  Romish 
system  is  destructive  of  grateful  and  childlike  obedi- 
ence.    We  all  know  what  l.uther  and  others  made  of 
the  keeping  of  the  law,  when   under  this  rci^ime  of 
bondage  ;  and  it  must  be  affirmed  that  the  Rational- 
ist's legal  hope,  and  the  Romanist's  legal  terror,  are 
e([ually  destructive  of  the  loving,  confiding  impulses 
of  true  Christian  morality.     The  confession  and  ab- 
solution, too,  of  the  Romish  Church  turn  away  the 
gratitude  and  confidence  of  her  members  from  Christ 
to  the  priesthood  ;  and  as  there  is  no  direct  contact 


with  a  holy  God  in  these  exercises,  their  effect,  so  far 
from  being  sanctifying,  as  all  experience  tesdfies,  is 
demoralizing,  and  relaxes  even  the  hold  of  the  other 
motives  which  Romanism  still  retains. 

Look  now  here  once  more  at  the  influence  of  the 
two  false  principles  on  the  moral  standard  of  Chris- 
tianity. The  tendency  of  rationalized  Christianity 
has  always  been  to  bend  the  rigidity  of  the  law  into 
accommodation  to  human  weakness.  It  is  no  para- 
dox that  those  divines  who  have  most  exalted  morality 
as  the  alpha  and  omega  of  Christianity,  have  taught  a 
lower  morality  than  the  fanatics  and  enthusiasts  who 
drew  their  insi)iration  from  the  cross.  The  duties  of 
man  to  man  have  been  exalted,  while  the  duties  of 
man  to  Cod  have  been  forgotten  ;  and  these  moral 
systems  have  decided  many  questions  of  casuistry 
with  a  dangerous  laxness,  which  would  have  been 
impossible  under  the  light  of  that  awful  revelation 
which  comes  from  Calvar)%  and  under  the  prompting 
of  that  finer  moral  instinct  which  is  formed  in  the  soul 
by  the  indwelling  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Romanism 
presents,  at  first  sight,  a  totally  opposite  spectacle. 
There  is  in  this  religion  an  apparent  renunciation  of 
all  terms  with  the  flesh,  and  an  absolute  victory  over 
it,  as  we  see  in  the  whole  monastic  system  of  mortifi- 
cation and  seclusion  from  the  world,  together  with  the 
vows  of  celibacy,  poverty,  and  obedience  ;  and  the 
entire  doctrine  of  saindy  perfection  and  works   of 


38       On  Romanis)n  and  Rationalism 

supererogation   looks   at   first    blush    like    the   very 
chivalry  of  virtue— the  moral  law  carried  forward  to 
its  heroic  and  golden  age.     But  alas  !  we  find  here, 
as  ever>-where  else  in  the  history  of  superstition,  that 
excess  in  one  quarter  implies  defect  in  another.     The 
laity— the  vulgar,  for  whom  no  such  sublime  standard 
is  erected— are   permitted  to  rely  on    the   vicarious 
morality  of  the  saints  and  the  perfected,  or  more  than 
perfected,  ones  ;  and  thus  the  unity  of  the  moral  law, 
which  demands  perfect   obedience    from    all,   is  de- 
stroyed ;  and  further,  human  nature,  unable  to  sustain 
itself  at  the  sublime  height  to  which  it  is  carried,  falls 
back  into  the  abyss,  and,  as  the  abuses  of  the  monas- 
tic system  and  of  enforced  celibacy  too  well  attest,  the 
apparent  victory  over  nature  ends  in  a  more  humilia- 
ting defeat.     After  all,  the  higher  stages  of  virtue  in 
the  Church  of  Rome  are  purely  imaginary.     Works  of 
supererogation  cannot  exist.     It  is  impossible  to  pay 
to  Ood  or  to  man  more  love  than  the  law  demands  ; 
and  the  very  idea  that  God  can  be  satisfied  with  less 
than  perfection  introduces  a  fatal  laxity  into  the  whole 
moral  system,  so  that  here,  as  at  so  many  other  points 
the  exaggerations  of  Superstition  and  the  extenuations 
of  Rationalism  conspire  to  one  result.    I  will  not,  in- 
deed, charge  on  the  superstition  alone  of  the  Church 
of  Rome  the   melancholy   perversions  of  morality, 
which  we  find  in  the  pdiiy  of  that  Church,  such  as 
that  the  end  sanctions  the  means,  that  no  faith  is  to 


as  opposed  to  Pure  Christianity.      39 

be  kept  with  heretics,  and  that  the  interests  of  the 
Church  are  paramount  to  all  other  laws  and  obliga- 
tions. These  are  the  results  of  worldliness  rather 
than  of  superstition.  Only  it  cannot  be  denied  that 
superstition,  turning  away  attention  from  sim})le  duties 
to  self-imposed  forms,  making  virtues  which  God 
never  made,  setting  up  one  rule  for  the  laity  and 
another  for  the  priesthood,  and  teaching  that  the  per- 
fections of  one  class  in  some  sense  cover  the  short- 
comings of  anodier, — does  thereby  confound  all  right 
moral  distinctions,  and  opens  a  door  to  excesses  and 
atrocities  under  the  mask  of  religion,  which  paganism 
never  equalled,  and  which  make  the  annals  of  Rome's 
supremacy,  and  still  more  of  her  contests  for  pre- 
eminence, one  of  the  darkest  pages  in  the  moral  his- 
tory of  the  world. 


IV.  In  a  few  words,  I  shall  complete  this  sketch 
by  turning  your  attention  to  the  action  of  Rationalism 
and  Superstition  upon  Christianity  considered  as  a  sys- 
tem oi  association  ox  fellowship.  Christianity  is  not  a 
religion  of  isolated  units,  but  of  masses.  Man's  nature 
demands  a  social  religion  :  and  Christianity  is  the 
most  social  of  all  religions,  because  it  has  the  noblest 
centre  of  attraction,  and  the  most  glorious  power  of 
gathering  all  around  that  centre.  The  Bible  settles 
three  great  vital  questions  in  regard  to  the  Christian 
society  : — Who  shall  belong  to  it,  which  is  the  ques- 


40      On  Romanism  and  Rationalism 

tion  of  discipline ;  What  shall  be  the  relation  of  its 
members  to  one  another,  which  is  the  question  of 
office  or  government;  and  What  their  union  shall  con- 
sist in,  which  is  the  question  of  worship.  A  sincrle 
glance  will  show  how  seriously  here,  as  ever)^vhere, 
the  fundamental  arrangements  of  Christianity  have 
been  encroached  on  or  subverted. 

Take  first  the  question  of  disciplwe.     Christianity 
requires  all  saved  persons  to  make  a  visible  profession 
of  their  Christianity  by  joining  the  Christian  society, 
and  ordains  that  none  who  appear  to  be  saved  shall 
be  excluded.    This  is  the  unity  of  the  visible  Church, 
resting  on,  and  pre-supposing  the  deeper  unity  of  the 
invisible.     Now  Rationalism  attacks  in  many  cases 
this  position  of  the  need  of  a  visible  Church.     It  is 
satisfied  with  silent  conviction,  and  recoils  from  con- 
nexion with  any  external  society,  despising  forms  and 
positive  ordinances,  and  exalting  the  invisible  at  the 
expense  of  the  visible.     This  has  been,  in  all  ages, 
the  danger  of  philosophizing    Christians.       In    this 
spirit  the  Unitarians,  and  to  some  extent  the  Friends, 
otherwise  remote  enough  from  them,  unite  ;  and  of 
late  the  Plymouth  Brethren  have  arisen  to  make  this 
their  watchword,  and  to  preach  the  demolition  of  the 
visible  Church,  as  every^vhere  in  a  state  of  apostasy. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Church  of  Rome,  with  the 
uniform  tendency  of  superstition  to  materialize  every- 
thing, and  to  incorporate  and  intertwine  the  external 


f 


as  opposed  to  Picj^e  Christianity.       41 

and  internal,  identifies    the  visible  Church  with  the 
invisible,  and  denies  in  effect  that  there  are  Christians 
before  there  is  a  visible  Church.     Hence  men  do  not 
enter  the  visible  Church  because  they  are  Christians, 
but  enter  it  to  become  so;   and,  as  a  necessary  con 
sequence,  there  is  no  salvation  out  of  the  pale  of  the 
Romish  Church,  and  certain  salvation   to   all  who 
remain  in  her  communion,  and  do  not  obstruct  the 
efficacy  of  her  rites  by  mortal  sin.     The  tremendous 
responsibility  thus  resting  upon  the  visible  Church, 
which  has  talsely  claimed  to  be  the  only  birthplace 
of  souls,  instead  of  the  nurse  of  souls  already  born  from 
above,  acting  upon  the  fears  of  superstition,  has  led  the 
visible  Church  to  claim  such  i)rerogatives  as  would 
guarantee  salvation,  viz.,  infallibility,  sacramental  effi- 
cacy,   and    exclusive   catholicity.       Otherwise    there 
might  be  saints  beyond  the  pale  of  the  visible  Church, 
or   unsaved   persons    left  within    it,  both   of  which 
alternatives  were  excluded  by  the  supposition.     This 
superstitious  exaltation  of  the  visible  Church  as  that 
to  which  all  true  Christians  must  belong,  soon  changed 
to  the  formula  as  that  by  which  all  true  Christians 
must  be  made,  is  the  first  fatal  error  of  Romanism,  as 
a  Church,— an  error  generated  before  Romanism  was 
formed  into  a  system,  an  error  as  old  as  Cyprian  in 
the  end  of  the   third   century,  but  which  soon   de- 
veloped itself  into  full-grown  Popery,  with  its  exclu- 
siveness,   its  false  uniformity,  its  assumption  of  the 


\ 


42       On  Romanism  and  Rationalism 

divine  prerogative  to  bind  and  to  loose,  to  shut  and 
to  open,  not  the  door  of  communion  on  earth  only, 
but  what  on  this  theory  comes  to  the  same  thing,  the 
gate  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Thus  while  Ration- 
alism slights  the  visible  Church,  Superstition  all  but 
deifies  it  ;  and  both  miss  its  grand  ends, — to  rally 
Christians  together  round  a  common  standard,  to 
display  their  union  to  the  world,  and  to  enable  them 
to  watch  over  each  other's  souls,  and  to  walk  in  love 
in  so  far  as  they  are  agreed. 

Take  now  the  nearly  allied  question  oi  office,  or  the 
relation  of  the  members  of  the  Church  to  one  another. 
According  to  pure  Christianity  office  rests  on  spiritual 
gifts,  and  is  simply  the  exercise  of  these,  with  the 
consent  of  the  Christian  society,  for  mutual  edification. 
Order  and  liberty  are  harmonized  in  willing  subjec- 
tion to  the  appointment  of  Christ,  the  only  head  and 
ruler  of  His  Church.     It  is  the  tendency  of  Ration- 
alism to  set  aside  the  appointments  of  Christ  in  these 
matters,  to  adjust   or  create    offices  according  to  a 
fancied  expediency,  or  even  to  hand  them  over  to  the 
control    of  a   worldly  power,  in    return    for  certain 
apparent  advantages,  to  the  detriment  or  destruction 
of  the  free  self-agency  of  the  Christian  body,  accord- 
ing to  the  laws  of  Christ.     The   extreme  of  this  is 
Erastianism,  and  I  use  the  word  in  no  party  sense, 
believing  that  enlightened  Christians  everywhere  de- 
sire to  repudiate  the  thing,  though  they  differ  as  to 


,1     - 


■V 
*■  ■ 


'i^ 


as  opposed  to  Pure  Christianity.       43 

what  should  be  called  by  the  name.  Here,  again, 
Romanism  exalts,  and,  by  exalting,  corrupts,  what  is 
essential  in  Church-office.  It  is  led  to  this  extreme 
by  the  doctrine  of  the  visible  Church,  just  developed. 
The  visible  Church  indeed  might  wield  all  its  tremen- 
dous prerogatives  without  having  any  special  office- 
bearers, or  at  least  any  permanent  ones,  like  a 
Committee  of  Public  Safety,  which  changed  its  mem- 
bers from  time  to  time.  But  superstition  eagerly  lays 
hold  of  what  is  tangible  and  palpable  ;  and,  as  the 
Christian  Church  began  with  the  apostles,  succeeding 
office-bearers  were  exalted  to  their  rank  ;  the  decent 
form  of  ordination  was  transmuted  into  a  magical  rite 
believed  to  transmit  supernatural  virtue,  and  a  priest- 
hood thus  arose  qualified,  as  the  representatives  of 
God,  to  dispense  the  salvation  which  could  alone  be 
found  in  connexion  with  the  visible  Church.  The 
superstition  of  the  multitude  was  wrought  upon  by 
representing  connexion  with  the  Church  as  connexion 
with  these  office-bearers  ;  and  as  the  unity  ascribed  to 
the  Church  recjuired  a  centre  in  the  eyes  of  supersti- 
tion to  which  it  might  cling  as  with  a  death-grasp, 
the  Bishop  of  Rome,  partly  from  the  misunderstood 
words  of  our  Lord  to  Peter,  and  partly  from  the 
influence  of  the  metropolis  of  the  world,  in  which  he 
had  his  seat,  became  the  vicar  of  Christ  on  earth,  and 
that  spiritual  despotism  was  consolidated,  which  made 
him    and    his    successors   the  uppermost  links  in   a 


^. 


44       On  Romanism  and  Rationalism 

grand  electric  chain  of  spiritual  despotism  which  sent 
Its  vibrations    through    the    heart   of  every  slave  of 
superstition  to  the  extremities  of  the  earth,  and  was 
believed  to  extend  also  to  heaven  and  hell  and  the 
imaginary   region    that   lay   between.       71ius   while 
Rationalism  has  slighted  Church  office,  and  left  it  to 
be  tampered  with  by  foreign  powers,  Romanism  has 
despotically  magnified  it,  so  as  to  transform  it  from  a 
ministry  into  a  saving  priesthood  ;  at  once  subverting 
the  prerogatives  of  Christ,   and  lording  it  over  his 
heritage. 

Look,  finally,  to  the  ^vorship  of  the  Church,  as 
exhibiting  another  field  for  the  agency  of  these  cor- 
rupting influences.     Christian  worship  is  the  expres- 
sion of  devotional  feelings  to  God,  and  the  exhibition 
of  his  truth  to  the  world  in  certain  forms  appointed 
by  himself,  so  as  to  secure  the  strengthening  of  right 
principles  in  Christians,  and  the  extension  of  them  to 
others.     Rationalism,  little  alive  to  the  value  of  such 
worship,  has  tended  to  discourage  it  by  the  coldness 
of  its  tone,  has  frowned  upon  its  frequency  and  fer- 
vour, and  in  some  cases  mutilated  its  parts  ;  as,  for 
examj.le,   by   denying  the   permanent   obligation   of 
baptism   and   the   Lord's   supper,   or  of  the   day  on 
which   Christian    worship    is   commonly  conducted 
The  Church  of  Rome,  again  as  before,  exalts  worslnp 
so  as  to  transform   and  destroy  its  character.     It  is 
not  only  a  means  of  grace,  but,  certain  extreme  con- 


as  opposed  to  Pure  Christianity,       45 

tingencies  guarded  against,  the  certain  channel  of 
grace.  To  take  part  in  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass, 
the  beginning  and  middle  and  end  of  Romish  wor- 
ship, is  to  perform  a  saving  act.  And  hence  super- 
stition employs  in  this  service  all  that  is  imposing  and 
gorgeous  to  work  upon  its  own  feelings,  and  make 
itself  believe  its  own  illusion.  The  religious  shadow 
of  temples,  with  the  dim  light  of  tapers,  the  slow  and 
measured  movements  of  priests,  the  waving  of  censers, 
the  tinkling  of  bells,  the  chanting  of  solemn  music, 
with  the  pealing  depth  of  the  organ,  the  awe-struck 
prostration  of  every  knee,  while  the  symbol  of  a  pre- 
sent deity  is  raised  on  high, — all  this,  in  minds  pre- 
possessed from  their  infancy  in  favour  of  these  rites? 
must  make  a  strong  impression  on  the  sense  and 
imagination,  and  the  natural  religious  sensibilities, 
which  is  almost  certain  to  be  mistaken  for  pure  de- 
votion, the  more  especially  that  it  may  contain  some 
better  elements.  Though  the  jjrayers  are  in  an  un- 
known tongue,  it  too  is  looked  on  as  sacred  and  the 
tongue  of  the  whole  Catholic  Church  ;  and,  muttered 
as  they  are  and  inaudible  to  the  ear  of  the  worshi})per, 
they  are  the  utterances  of  mighty  and  awful  beings 
who  have  power  with  God,  whose  incantations  can 
liberate  the  dead  from  penal  fires,  and  whose  words 
of  benediction  can  blot  out  the  darkest  sins  of  the 
living,  not  only  from  the  records  of  conscience,  but 
from  the  judgment-books  of  God.     Alas!  this  splen- 


46       0)1  Roma7iism  and  Rationalisni 

did  shadow  !  to  a  superstitious  temperament,  how 
fascinating  !  what  is  it  but  the  fabric  of  a  vision,  or 
rather  a  phantasmagoria,  only  too  grateful  to  those 
fallen  beings  whose  interest  it  is  to  intercept  the  per- 
sonal, intelligent,  saving  communion  of  the  souls  of 
men  with  Him  who  will  save  men  only  by  light  and 
knowledge,  and  who,  as  a  Spirit,  must  be  worshipped 
in  si)irit  and  in  truth  !  Thus,  again,  Romanism,  like 
Rationalism,  misses  its  aim  in  worship.  The  one 
expects  little,  and  is  not  disappointed  ;  the  other 
expects  much,  unsj)eakably  too  much,  for,  seeking  it 
at  the  altar,  and  not  at  the  Bible  and  the  Throne  ot 
grace,  it  stumbles  on  amid  the  gloom  and  shadows  ot 
a  worse  than  Levitical  economy,  and  never  attains 
the  deep  and  hallowed  joy  of  those  who  draw  nigh 
to  God  'with  a  true  heart,  in  full  assurance  of  faith, 
having  their  hearts  sprinkled  from  an  evil  conscience, 
and  their  bodies  washed  with  i)ure  water.' 

I  have  thus  endeavoured,  in  a  very  cursory,  and, 
I  am  afraid,  a  too  general  manner,  to  survey  some- 
what of  the  vast  field  embraced  in  my  subject.  I 
could  add  many  general  reflections  of  a  practical 
nature,  of  which  the  topic  before  me  is  very  sug- 
gestive.     I  shall  content  myself  with  two. 

First,  T.et  us  beware  of  supposing  that  Rationalism 
and  Superstition  are  confined  to  any  school  of  divines, 
whether  in  Clermany  or  England  on  the  one  hand,  or 
to  Papal  countries  on  the  other.     Everv  one  of  us  i^ 


•.^■' 


r^-. 


ir 


*     ■ 


as  opposed  to  Pure  Christianity.       47 

naturally  a  Rationalist   or  a   Romanist,  or  a  com- 
pound of  both  ;  and  though  we  may  fancy  ourselves 
perfectly  free  from  it,  there  is  too  much  of  the  old 
leaven  still  cleaving  to  us  all.     I  cannot  enter  into 
the   high  denunciatory  strain   in  which  Rationalism 
and  Popery  have  sometimes  been  attacked,  as  if  they 
were  not  so  much  the  sins  and  errors  of  men  as  the 
works  of  incarnate  demons,  which  can  only  be  traced 
to  deliberate  irreverence,  lying,  or  priestcraft  on  the 
part  of  their  abettors.     This  shows  great  ignorance 
of  ourselves  ;  great  want  of  fairness  and  charitv  to- 
wards  our  erring  brethren!     There  may  be,  and  I 
fear  is,  much  perversity  in  Rationalism,  much  priest- 
craft and  conscious  tyranny  in  Romanism.     Where 
these  are  apparent,  let  us  not  shrink  from  condemnin<^ 
them  in  appropriate  terms,  after  the  example  of  Him 
who  spared  neither  Sadducee  nor  Pharisee.     But  let 
us  also  think  of  the  pride  and  unbelief  of  our  own 
minds,  and  of  our  own  difficulties  in  embracing  some 
of  the  doctrines  of  Christianity  ;  and  let  us  charitably 
l)elieve  that  the  Rationalism  of  not  a  few  may  be  the 
ascendency  of   similar  difiiculties    not    yet   in   their 
minds  overcome.     Let  us  think  of  the  formalism  of 
our  own  spirits — of  our  readiness  to  trust  in  external 

things,  in  rites,  in  sacraments,  in  church  privileges 

of  our  remaining  distrust  of  God's  love  and  free  grace 
in  Christ  ;  and  let  us  charitably  think  that  the  Ro- 
manism of  not  a  few  may  be  the  lingering  effect  of 


48       On  Roma?iis7n  and  Ratio7ialism 

similar  tendencies,  in  them  more  powerful,  or  from 
which  the  Spirit  of  God  has  not  yet  set  them  free. 
Let  us  testify  against  both  evils,  loudly  and  earnestly 
as  we  will  ;  but  let  us  speak  the  truth  in  love, 
and  in  the  spirit  of  Him  whose  words  should  never 
be  forgotten— '  They  know  not  what  they  do.'  Let 
the  melting  tones  of  compassion  and  prayer  be 
mingled  with  the  stern  controversies  of  the  times  in 
which  we  live  ;  and  then  the  witness  we  bear  will 
not  be  less  acceptable  to  God,  nor  less  effectual 
in  reclaiming  those  who  are  ignorant  and  out  of 
the  way. 

Secondly,  It  is  only  by  the  establishment  of  God's 
truth  that  Rationalism  and  Superstition  can  be  finally 
overthrown.     As   I   have  already  remarked,  though 
mutually  repellent,  these  antagonist  powers  are   not 
mutually  destructive.     Errors  never  totally  obliterate 
each  other.     That  is  the  prerogative  only  of  truth. 
It  was  confidently  stated  in  the  end  of  last  century 
that   infidelity  had    conclusively  abolished   Poper>'  ; 
but  many  have  lived  to  see  the  formidable  reaction 
which  belies  all  such  expectations  ;  and  if  any  ima- 
gine that  Poi)ery  has  now  materially  diminished  the 
infidelity  of  the  Continent  by  way  of  reprisals,  they 
will  be  ecjually  mistaken.     \\\  our  own  country,  as  on 
the  Continent,  no  conclusive  victory  is  to  be  gained 
by  fighting  the  battle  against  Popery  with  the  weajjons 
of  mere  negation  and  protest,  with  such  sarcasms  of 


■e^o 


as  opposed  to  Piire  C/iristia7iify.       49 

journalists,  and  scoffs  and  mockeries  of  our  lighter 
literature,  as  were  current  during  the  Papal  aggression, 
and  are  revived  in  the  present  contest  with  Ultramon- 
tanism.      These  may  do  valuable  political  service, 
may  even  expel  religious  error  for  a  time  ;  but  they 
will  not  generate  Christian  faith  ;  they  will  not  keep 
the    door   shut   against    the   return    of  superstition. 
Nothing  will  cure  the  inevitable  tendency  of  super- 
stitious minds  to  relapse  into  error  but  the  pre-occu- 
pation  and  satisfaction  of  their  hearts  with  the  truth  ; 
and  if  a  wide  and  prayerful  diffusion  of  gospel  truth 
is    not  attempted    in    the    present  struggle    against 
Popery,  the  tactics  of  its  political  antagonists  may  be 
triumphant,  and  we  may  even  seem  to  overrun  the 
enemy's  country  and  level   his  strongholds ;  but  we 
shall  make  no  stable  conquests.     Those  who  expect 
the  downfall  of  Popery  from  i)olitical  combinations 
and  unbelieving  reactions  against  it,  without  relying 
on  the  Bible  and  the  missionary,  will  once  more  be 
disappointed ;  and  if  we  wish  at  last  to  succeed,  we 
must  strive  to  convert  the  political  recoil  of  France 
and   Italy  into   a  vital,   earnest,   and   insuppressible 
religious  reformation.     Let  us  cherish  interest  also  in 
that  reaction  against  Rationalistic  Protestantism  which 
has  been  for  years  extending  itself  both   in   France 
and  Germany.     Let  us  pray  for  the   spread,  in  the 
National  Churches  of  these  lands,   of  the  revived 
evangelism  which  is  returning  after  many  aberrations, 


50       On  Roincinism  and  Rationalism 

not  only  to  the  Incarnate  Word,  but  what  is  more  to 
the   written   Word  ;    and  seek   that    the   difficulties 
which  the  revival    is    encountering   in    the   land   of 
Luther  from  a  revived  sacramental  ism  and  supersti- 
tion, may  also  be  overcome.     Let  the  Churches  of 
Britain  be  also  i)repared  for  those  contests  with  un- 
belief at  home  which  have  come  so  unexi)ectedly  upon 
themselves,  and  which  are  so  bravely  waged  by  a 
multitude   of  loyal    defenders  of  the    faith    in    that 
Anglican  Church   where   they  have   begun  ;  anrl  let 
them  not  only  strive   to   concjuer  in  the  field  of  ar- 
gument,   which    is    comparatively    easy,    since    the 
champions  of  Rationalism  can  only  build  up  their 
counterfeit  temple  like  Julian  out  of  its  own  repeat- 
edly blasted   ruins,  but  let  them  aspire  to  the  more 
difficult  success  of  reproducing  the  moral  signs  and 
wonders  of  the  Bible  before  men's  eyes,  in  works  of 
faith  and  labours  of  love,  which  shall  i)rove  that  the  pre- 
sence of  Israel's  Ciod  is  in  the  midst  of  us,  a  pillar  of 
heaven-descended  glor)',  and  not  an  emanation  of  the 
desert  in  which  it  moves.     Thu-  shall  we  be  ecjuipped 
in  the  armour  of  righteousness  on  the  right  hand  ana 
the  left,  and  shall  not  only  guard  our  own  lines,  but 
bear  the  standard  of  salvation  into  new  territories  • 
and  whatever  be  the  future  struggles  and  reactions 
of  Rationalism  and  Superstition,  and  of  that  kingdom 
of  darkness  and    error  which   is  wide   enough  and 
catholic  enough  to  comprehend  them  both,  we  shall 


f 


s 


as  opposed  to  Pure  Clwistianity.       5 1 

at  least  do  something  to  accelerate  their  downfall, 
and  to  introduce  a  happier  age,  when  these  shadows 
shall  not  as  now  be  cast  far  and  wide  over  the  field 
of  living  experience,  but  shall  be  reflected  only  from 
the  dim  and  fading  page  of  Church  history,  as  the 
mists  and  vapours  of  morning,  which  the  gathering 
light  and  heat  of  pure  Christianity  has  at  length  dis- 
persed and  chased  away. 


APPENDIX. 

STATEMENT  for  the  Societiks  referred  to  in  the 

Preface. 


SOCIETY  OF  SONS  OF  UNITED  I'RESBVTERIAN 

MINISTERS. 

Instituted  Septonber  20,  1854.) 


OFFICK-BKARKRS. 

President. 
kev.  Jamfs  Hakikk,  I).  D.,  Professor  of  Theology  to  the  U.  P.  Church. 

/  Icc-Prcsiiictits. 

Rev.  John  Smakt,  D.D.,  Leith. 

Rev.  John  MACFAki.ANh",  1-L. I).,  Llapham,  London. 

J/oiiorary  Dinctors. 

Rev.  William  .Anukr.son,  LL. D.,  Glasgow. 

John  .Scott  Rrs.'^Ki.i.,  Esq.,  F. R.S.,  London. 

J. \.MKs  Watson,  Esq.  of  Riv.ilsgreen,  Linlithgow. 

Rev.  Gkok(;k  Gilkii.i.an,  Dundee. 

Andrew  Mi  tkk.  Esq.  of  Milton,  Glasgow. 

Rev.  R.  J.  IJRVCK,  LL.L).,  Uelfa.st. 

H.  E.  Cklm  Ewing,  Esq.  of  Strathleven,  .^LP.,  Glasgow. 

James  Peddie,  Esq.,  W.S.,  Edinburgh. 

JOH.N  Lou.\N,  Esq.,  Merchant,  Glasgow. 

Ordinary  Directors. 

Rev.  VV.M.  Brick,  Edinburgh. 

Rev.  David  .M'Ew.w,  Edinburgh. 

William  Leckie,  Escj.,  Cashier,  Commercial  Hank,  Edinburgh. 

William  Fraser,  Esq.,  Town-Clerk,  Inverkeithing. 

J(mN  Anderson,  Esq.,  Writer,  Paisley. 

Andrew  Elliot,  Esq.,  Publisher.  P'.dinburgh. 

Ale.xander  Moncriekf,  Esq..  .Advocate,  Edinburgh. 

JoH.N  Hl.^ck,  Esq.,  Advocate,  Edinburgh. 

W.  H.  M'Farlane,  Esq.,  Lithographer,  Edinburgh. 

Mlngo  Lauder,  Esi].,  Merchant,  Glasgow. 

D 


54 


Appendix. 


Appendix. 


55 


Charles  Ai  li>,  Esq.,  M.D.,  Greenock. 

A.  H.  Bryce,  Esq.,  B.A.,  High  Sch(K)l,  Edinburgh. 

John  Gokkie,  Esq.,  Advocate.  89,  Chancery  Lane,  London. 

Rev.  R.  S.  I>RiM.Mf)ND,  A.M.,  Glasgow. 

Rev.  George  W.aklace,  Hull. 

E.  Erski.ne  Harj'KR,  Esq  ,  Merchant,  Leith. 

Peter  M'Leod,  Esq.,  Writer.  GIa>i,'ow'. 

Jame.s  L<k;a.\  Mmr,  Esq.,  Merch:iiu,  Islington.  London. 

J.  Dick  Pkddie,  E.sq.,  Architect,  Edinburgh. 

RiCHi).  G.  Ross,  Esq.,  Engineer,  Glasgow. 

John  .Sommervili.e,  Esq..  Merchant,  Leith. 

Tho.mas  Jkkkkev.  Flsq.,  Merchant,  Edinburgh. 

James  Th«jM.son,  Esq.,  Accountant,  Gla.sgow. 

Stxrctary. 
(;eok<;k  M'Ewan,  Esi].,  Advocate,  34,  Dundas  .Street,  Edinburgh. 

Treasurer. 
J.  K.Nox  Crawford,  Est|.,  .S.S.C.  *>,  North  St.  David  Street,   Edinburgh. 

The  Society  was  instituted  at  a  ])ul)lic  meeting 
called  for  the  purpose,  of  the  Sons  of  Ministers,  held 
in  Kdinlnirgh  on  20th  September  1854.  The  con- 
siderations in  which  it  originated  may  be  very  briefly 
stated. 

The  histor>-  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church 
has  been  one  of  progress.  Throughout  many  years 
of  political  agitation  and  religious  controversy,  it  has 
continued  to  maintain  those  distinctive  principles 
that  incited  the  small  band  who  gave  it  its  origin. 
Amidst  its  growing  .strength,  however,  there  are  re- 
lationships which  are  apt  to  be  broken  up  and  for- 
gotten. Its  sons  are  to  be  found  in  every  station 
and  in  every  clime  ;  but  although  they  have  been 
scattered  over  the  world,  or  sej)arated  from  the  de- 
nomination by  differences,  they  must  ever  feel  a 
pleasure  in  their  early  attachment  to  it.  At  least 
such  a  feeling  must  remain  strong  in  the  hearts  of 
ministers'  sons  in  reference  to  the  Church,  and  it  is 
well  and  laudable  for  those  who  have  so  s|)rung  from 
it,  to  testify  their  gratitude  by  linking  themselves  in 
a  bond  of  brotherhood,  animated  by  the  common 
principles   of   sympathy   and    benevolence,    so    that 


** 


■»-■%■ 


^ 


?-. 


'■*tp 


"■•SI 


wherever  they  may  be  placed  in  life,  though  seas 
may  intervene  or  schisms  separate  them,  this  one 
connecting  tie  to  their  common  parent  may  still 
subsist.     Hence  the  origin  of  this  Society. 

As  regards  its  benevolent  o])ject — that  of  affording 
I)ecuniary  assistance  to  the  families  of  ministers  de- 
ceased or  infirm  placed  in  necessitous  circumstances 
— little  need  be  said.  Dissenting  ministers  are  far 
from  being  a  wealthy  class.  \<\\\\  most  it  takes 
frugal  care  and  management  to  meet  the  bare  com- 
forts and  necessities  of  life  ;  and  therefore  it  was  not 
matter  of  surprise  that  now  and  again  cases  of  hard- 
ship arise,  of  their  children  being  left  to  the  mercies 
of  the  world,  with  nothing  for  their  support  and  edu- 
cation. As  it  was  a  difficult  matter  to  meet  these 
when  they  did  occur,  the  provision  for  them  instituted 
by  this  Society  was  at  once  oi)portune  and  commend- 
able. It  interfered  with  none  of  the  schemes  of  the 
United  Presbyterian  Church  in  operation,  and  yet 
the  most  cursory  investigation  might  convince  ever)^- 
body  that  it  was  a  desideratum. 

The  objects  of  the  Society  are  thus  set  forth  in  its 
constitution. 

1.  To  afford  pecuniary  assistance  to  the  families 
of  United  Presbyterian  Ministers,  who,  by  the  death 
or  infirmity  of  the  head  of  the  family,  may  be  placed 
in  necessitous  circumstances. 

2.  To  ])romote  friendly  intercourse  among  the 
Members  of  the  Society. 

3.  To  aid,  by  correspondence  and  counsel,  the 
younger  branches  of  United  Presbyterian  Ministers' 
families  in  prosecuting  their  views  in  life.  And,  in 
the  event  of  any  General  Meeting  of  the  Society 
deeming  the  funds  sufficient, 

4.  To  institute  one  or  more  Scholarships  for 
students  who  are  sons  of  United  Presbyterian 
Ministers. 


5^  Appendix. 

Terms  of  Membership. 

'I'he  following  are  admitted  as  ordinary  members 
of  the  Society  on  payment  of  a  minimum  annual  sub- 
scription of  5s.,  or  a  payment  of  not  less  than  /q, 
which  constitutes  life  membership,  viz.  :— 

1.  Sons  of  Ministers  of  the  United  Presbyterian 

Church. 

2.  (irandsons  of  do. 

3.  Sons-in-Law  of  do. 

Strangers  are  admitted  as  extraonUnarx  members, 
on  payment  of  not  less  than  ^5  :  l,ut'  the  office- 
bearers are  chosen  from  the  ordinary  members. 

Ope  rations  of  the  Soeiety. 

Smce  its  formation,  the  Society  has  steadily  in- 
creased its  membership,  and  there  are  now  on  the 
roil  245  members. 

The  permanent  capital  fund  now  amounts  to  about 
^'500,  ^!"i30o  of  which  is  invested  in  heritable 
securit). 

The  annual  income  from  subscriptions  and  interest 
on  ca[)ital  exceeds  ^^loo  :  but,  in  terms  of  the  con- 
stitution, a  large  portion  of  the  income  must  be  ap- 
plied in  increasing  the  capital  until  it  amount  to  the 
sum  of  ^5000.  Although  the  annual  distribution 
lor  benevolent  purposes  is  thus  limited  in  the  mean- 
time, the  Directors  have  for  several  vears  disbursed 
the  sum  of  ^30  annually. 

By  means  of  social  meetings,  conversaziones,  etc., 
the  Society  is  instrumental  in  promoting  friendly  in- 
tercourse among  the  members. 


Appendix. 


57 


*M 


'ftc- 


S'^r 


V 


-.  A 
■■■-I 


(lr..\.S(;ow  Society  of  Sons  of  Ministers  of  the 
United  Presbyterian  Church. 

office-bearers, 

1862-63. 

Prcscs. 
James  Mitchell,  Writer,  lilasgow. 

I'lcc-Pri'ses. 
FoKKHsr  F'rew,  Manufacturer.  Olasgow. 

Secretary. 
J  \Mi-:s  I!i  KNS  KiDSTON.  Writer,  50,  West  Regent  Street,  Glasgow. 

I'reasttrer. 
Hc(;n  HKidH.  Merchant,  41,  St.  Vincent  Place,  (ilasgow. 

Ordina  ry  Dirertorx. 
Andkevv  Muter  of  Milton. 
JoH.N  Meikleh.am.  Clyde  Iron  Work.s. 
Robert  JKKFK.A.V  Wai.kek,  Merchant,  Glasgow. 
(iE()K(;K  M'Faklank,  Accountant,  Glasgow. 
John  Kid.sto.x,  Writer.  Glasgow. 
(iEoRGE  RoH.sox,  Accouutant,  Glasgow. 
Wm.  M'Ewen,  Merchant,  Glasgow. 
(iEORiiE  Coven TKv  Uick,  Comniission  Agent,  (ilasgow. 
Ai.EX.  Henderson  M'Lean,  Tea  Merchant,  C;iasgf)w. 
H(h;h  Moncrieff,  Writer.  Glasgow. 

'I'he  objects  intended  to  be  served  by  this  Society, 
and  the  sentiments  in  which  it  originated,  will  be 
learned  from  the  following  extracts  from  an  address 
issued  in  pursuance  of  the  resolutions  of  a  meeting 
of  Sons  of  Ministers,  held  on  loth  April  1854,  when 
it  was  agreed  that  a  Society  should  be  formed  in 
(ilasgow  : — 

'Our  Church  contains  three  liodies,  long  separate 
but  now  united.  We  have  cause  to  rejoice  that  in  all 
their  divisions  they  ever  maintained  the  one  great 
Head  of  the  Church,  and  the  liberty  of  its  members, 
His  body.  Many  of  us  can  recollect  the  time  when 
each  of  the  three  Bodies  composing  the  United  Pre.s- 


■.life' 


=;8 


Appendix, 


byterian  Church  was  a  separate  Body.  In  these  small 
communions  every  minister  was  the  intimate  friend  of 
nearly  ever>'  other,  and  ministers'  families  were  here- 
ditary friends. 

'  These  days  are  gone,  and  have  left  behind  them 
feehngs  which  can  now  be  thoroughly  appreciated  by 
but  a  few.  Let  us  only  hope,  as  we  truly  believe,  that 
what  we  have  lost  in  the  ahiiost  family  intercourse 
which  subsisted  among  the  Ministers  of  our  sei)arate 
churches,  is  more  than  compensated  by  our  union. 
The  feelings  of  those  among  us  who  are  more  ad- 
vanced in  life  are  indeed  changed,  but  only  changed 
to  be  enlarged  so  as  to  embrace  a  greater  number 
of  those  who  hold  the  same  faith  and  entertain  the 
same  hope. 
^  '  The  Sons  of  Ministers  of  the  United  Presbyterian 
Church  in  Glasgow  are  now  numerous,  and  we  think 
the  time  has  come  when  they  should,  by  the  forma- 
tion of  an  Association  of  their  own,  follow  the  example 
set  to  them  by  the  Sons  of  Ministers  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland. 

'  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  plead,  when  speaking  of 
Scodand,  that  Glasgow  ought  to  be  the  seat  of  such 
a  Society.  Whether  there  should  be  kindred  associa- 
tions in  other  towns,  it  is  for  the  Sons  of  Ministers 
resident  in  such  towns  to  decide.  But,  obviously,  the 
industrial  capital  of  Scotland  must  continue  to  be  the 
resort  of  young  men  having  their  way  to  make  in  life. 
Our  Ministers  have  ever,  out  of  their  scantv  means, 
striven  to  give  their  sons  a  good  education.  With 
such  education,  and  personally  maintaining  in  its 
purity,  the  religion  taught  in  their  fathers'  homes,  they 
may  well  be  expected  to  succeed  in  such  a  city.  But 
they  are  often  subjected  to  difficulties  in  finding  em- 
ployment, and  must  feel  the  want  of  that  counsel  and 
kindness  which,  we  trust,  will  now  be  sui)plied  by 
those  who  have  trod  the  path  before  them.' 


"A- 


Appendix. 


Constitution. 


50 


Some  time  after  the  issuing  of  this  address,  the 
Society  was  constituted.  Its  object  and  purpose,  as 
declared  by  the  constitution,  is  to  contribute  to  the 
benefit  of  the  families  (children  and  widows),  and  to 
the  advancement  in  life  of  children  of  ministers,  whe- 
ther deceased  or  living,  of  the  United  Presbyterian 
Church,  or  of  any  of  the  churches  comprised  in  that 
body,  and  that  by  friendly  sympathy,  counsel,  and 
moral  influence,  as  well  as  by  pecuniary  aid,  in  cir- 
cumstances in  which  it  is  required,  so  far  as  the  funds 
of  the  Society  will  admit. 

While  the  supi)ort  of  the  Society  is  o])en  to  all, 
and  all  are  invited  to  contribute  to  its  funds,  its  mem- 
bershij)  is  confined  to  Sons  of  Ministers.  Life  mem- 
bership is  constituted  by  the  contribution  of  five 
guineas  to  the  funds,  and  from  the  life  members  the 
Boanl  of  Directors  is  selected.  With  the  view  of  in- 
teresting in  the  Society  Sons  of  Mmisters  who  may 
not  for  the  time  be  in  a  condition  to  become  mem- 
bers, it  was  some  time  ago  agreed  to  admit,  as  asso- 
ciates, such  Sons  of  Ministers  as  might  contribute  five 
shillings  annually  to  the  funds.  These  associates 
have  the  privilege  of  being  i)resent  at  general  meet- 
ings of  the  Society,  and  thus  have  the  oi)|)ortunitv  of 
becoming  ac(]uainte(l  with  its  members. 

Operations  of  the  Society. 

The  permanent  capital  amounts  to  ^2300,  and 
there  is  a  balance  of  cash  on  hand. 

Besides  the  imi)ortant  object  of  making  the  Sons  of 
Ministers  known  to  and  helpful  of  each" other  in  the 
intercourse  and  business  of  life,  the  Society  has, 
though  to  a  less  extent  than  the  Directors  desired^ 
aftbrded  pecuniary  aid,  either  stated  or  incidental,  in 


T 


60 


Appendix, 


various  cases  where  it  was  much  needed  and  highly 
appreciated.  Their  disbursements  in  this  way  were 
^30  in  the  first  year,  ^^44  in  the  second,  ^55  in  the 
third,  ^75  in  the  fourth,  £Q>o  in  the  fifth,  and  they 
have  already  been  ^118  in  the  sixth  year,  which  is 
now  current. 

Conclusion  to  the  Statements  for  both  Societies. 

While  there  is  an  obvious  delicacy  and  {)ropriety  in 
the  Sons  of  Ministers  administering  the  affairs  of  such 
associations  as  the  above,  the  duty  oi  supporting  them 
is  not  more  incumbent  on  them  than  on  other  mem- 
bers of  the  Church.  To  not  a  few  of  these,  both 
associations  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude,  and  the  Direc- 
tors feel  assured  that  in  aiding  the  Societies  whose 
claims  are  above  set  forth,  the  members  of  our  Church 
generally  would  acceptably  and  beneficially  show 
their  appreciation  of  and  sympathy  with  our  excellent 
ministry. 

The  Directors  of  both  Societies  recjuest  the  mini- 
sters of  our  Church  each  to  accept  the  accompanying 
copy  of  Dr.  Cairns'  Discourse,  with  this  Appendix, 
intended  to  make  known  the  existence,  extend  the 
operations,  and  enlarge  the  resources  of  these  So- 
cieties. They  cannot  close  these  remarks  without 
stating  how  deeply  they  feel  indebted  to  Dr.  Cairns 
for  his  admirable  discourse,  the  publication  of  which, 
they  are  persuaded,  will  be  beneficial  not  only  to  the 
Societies  at  whose  retjuest  it  is  published,  and  to  the 
United  Presbyterian  Church,  but  to  the  Church  of 
Christ  at  large. 


EDINiaRliH  :    T.  CONbl  ABLK, 
IRINTER  TO  THE  QIEEX,  AND  TO  THE  tMVKKSlTV 


\ 


LuDGATE  Hill,  December  1862. 


Now  in  course  of  Publication, 


STEAHAFS 
FAMILY    LIBRAE! 

OP 

BOOKS  AT  ONCE  CHEAP,  VALUABLE, 
AND  mSTKUCTIVE. 

In  Crown  Svo  Volumes,  printed  on  toned  paper,  and  elegantly  bound, 

Price  3«.  GJ.  each. 

All  that  the  Publishers  wish  to  say,  by  way  of  prospectus,  is,  that  their  aim  in 
this  Library  is  not  ignobly  to  interest,  or  frivolously  to  amuse,  but  to  c-onvev  the 
wisest  instruction  in  the  pleasantest  manner.  Tliey  desire,  in  short,  to  produce 
H  series  of  Books  which  will  not  only  be  w<»rth  reading,  but  will  be  wortli  keepinc 
and  which  will  fin.l  their  way  to  tens  of  thousands  of  British  homes,  to  be  well 
thumbed  and  dog-eared  by  the  children  and  the  grown  people,  on  the  journev  an.l 
at  the  fireside. 


The  foUowing  axe  a  few  of  the  Books  which  will  be  earliest 

issued :— 


THE   RECREATIONS    OF   A 
COUNTRY   PARSON. 


Origimlly  published  in  Eraser's  Magazine. 


[Rvwii). 


ir. 


SPEAKING  TO  THE  HEART. 

By  THOMAS  GUTHRIE,  D.D., 
Author  of  "  A  Plea  for  Ragged  Schools,"  "  The  Gospel  in  Ezekiel,"  etc. 

[Ready. 


III. 

PARISH   PAPERS: 

PERSONAL,  SOCIAL,  AND  CONGREGATIONAL. 
By  NORMAN  MACLEOD,  D.D.,  of  the  Barony  Parish,  Glasgow. 


VII. 


[Ready. 


IV. 


PRAYING    AND   WORKING; 

BEING  SOME  ACCOUNT  OF  WHAT  MF:N  CAN  DO  WHEN  IN  tL^RNEST. 


By  WILLIAM  FLEMING  STEVENSON. 


[Ready. 


V. 

TRAVELS  AND  ADVENTURES  IN 
PURSUIT  OF   SCIENCE. 

By  Prf.fpssor  C.  PIAZZI  SMYTH,  Astronoiiu'r-Royal  f»ir  Scotland,  Author  of 
"  Three  Cities  of  Russia,"  "  The  Peak  of  Teneiitfe,"  etc. 

[Shortly. 


VI. 


THE  HOUSEHOLD  HYMNS  OF  GERMANY 

AND  THE  NORTH 

Etliteil  and  Translated  under  the  direction  of  Miss  GREENWELL, 
Author  of  "  The  Patience  of  Hope." 

[In  preparation. 


'(' 


THE 


GRAVER    THOUGHTS    OF    A 
COUNTRY    PARSON. 


By  the  Autliov  of  "  Recreations  of  a  Country  Parson." 


[Rcadj/. 


VIII. 


JOHN   EVANGELIST   GOSSNER: 


HIS    LIFE    AND    HIS    DEEDS. 

By  the  Rev.  Dr.  PROCHNOW,  Berlin. 


[Shortly. 


IX. 


OUT-DOOR    ESSAYS. 

By  ALEXANDER  SMITH,  Secretary  to  tlie  University  of  Edinburgh, 
Author  of  **  The  Life  Drama,"  "  City  Poems,"  etc. 

[Slwrtly. 


X. 


rp 


A  POPULAR  EDITION  OF 

THE    EARNEST    STUDENT; 

BEING  MEMORIALS  OF  JOHN  MACKINTOSH. 
By  NORMAN  MACLEOD,  D.D.,  of  the  Barony  Parish,  Glasgow. 

[Shortly. 

XI. 

NEW     LIFE     IN     THE     PARISH. 


By  the  Rev.  Dr.  BUCHSEL,  Berlin. 


[Shortly. 


AKEXANDEK    STRAHAN    &   CO., 

32,  LuDOATE  Hill,  London. 


SECOND  EDITION  is  now  ready, 

Two  Vols.  Crown  8vo,  price  12.s., 

THE    OLD    LIEUTENANT   AND    IIIS  SON. 

By  NORMAN  MACLEOD,  D.D., 

ONE  or   HER  majesty's   chaplains   for  SCOTLAND,    ETC. 

THE  DAILY  NEWS. 

"  Wf  ]»la<-e  tlie  '  OM  Lieutenant  ami  His  Son'  in  the  very  tirst  rank  of  religions 
flrtion.     It  contains  reniarkable  evitlcnce  of  tho  author's  great  talent,  and  is  un 
tlouhtedly  one  t)f  the  K'st -writ ten  novels  that  has  ai>i)eared  for  some  time." 

THE  PARTHENON. 

'•  A  good  religious  novel  is  really  a  'startling  novelty,' a  something  remarkable 
an<l  niemoralile,  ami  is  altogether  wonderful  when  not  only  its  worth  hut  its  religion 
is  genuine.  .  .  .  l>r.  Machnd's  intense  earnestness  su]>i>lies  him  with  a  charm 
wliich  allures  tlie  intellect  and  the  feelings  of  the  reailer  alike.  .  .  .  Few  wli<t 
i)l>en  the  hook  will  close  it  with  a  sense  of  di.sapi>ointment." 

THE  GLOBE. 

"  Ver>' ]tleasant  reading  is  Dr.  Macleod's  '  OM  Lieutenant,' with  its  entertaining 
sketches  b<jth  of  land  an<l  sea.  It  is  written  with  a  hearty  love  of  those  to  whom  it 
relate.s." 

THE  NONCONFORMIST. 

"  If  a  lively  and  gra]>hic  style  of  narration,  well  marked  imliviihiality  in  the 
diiiiiintis  )>ers<inii\  abundance  of  incident,  sonnd  gooil  sense,  and  healthy  sentiment 
eonstitute  a  good  novel,  then  Dr.  Macleod's  story  of  the  '  OM  Lieutenant  and  His 
8on  '  is  a  good  novel,  as  it  is  a  thoroughly  enjoyable  book." 

THE  CALEDONIAN  MERCURY. 

•'  Norman  Madeod  has  done  more  than  ]'erhai>s  any  living  Scotchman  to  resou' 
our  <'ountry  from  the  charges  of  sonr-mindedness  and  bigotry,  but  he  has  not  done 
a  better  service  than  by  writing  this  story.  .  .  .  The  '  (^Id  Lieutenant  and  His 
Soji'  jiroves  Dr.  Macleod  to  be  a  very  giant  among  story  tellers. " 

THE  GLASGOW  HERALD. 

'*  Elo(|uent  as  Dr.  Macleoil's  sermons  are  known  to  be,  his  story  will  have  more 
clianns  for  the  great  majority  i>f  readers." 

SUNDERLAND  HERALD. 

*' We  have  ourselves  heanl  .sailors  say  that  'The  Old  Lieutenant  and  His  Son' 
is  one  of  the  best  tales  of  sea  life  ever  writt«n." 

ABERDEEN  HERALD. 

'•  It  is  such  a  story  as  every  mu-  must  deli^lit  in.  " 

BERWICK  ADVERTISER. 

"  This  is  the  beginning  of  what  wc  may  call  a  better  sort  of  novel ;  and  who  so 
well  (|nalitied  to  begin  this  as  the  noble-minded  author  whose  writings  sliow  sncli 
kindly  and  many-side*!  symj'athies  with  our  race  in  their  joys  and  in  their  sorrows?" 

GREENOCK  HERALD. 

"  The  merits  of  this  story  will  lie  acknou  ledgcd  far  and  wi<le.  lb)W  the  He\  erend 
Doctor  can  ]>aint  seafaring  peojtle  so  faithfully  is  the  wonder.  Genius,  however, 
eaii  do  anything." 

LONDON :  STRAHAN  &  CO.,  32,  LUDGATE  HILL. 


K\. 


ALEXANDER   STRAHAN  AND   CO.'S 
RECENT  PUBLICATIONS. 


Papers  for  Tlioughtfid  Girls, 

By  SARAH  TYTLER. 


Fourth  Edition.    Crown  Octavo,  5.«. 


Beginning  Life.    Chapters  for  Young  3Ien  on  Religion, 

study,  and  Du.sines.s.     By  JOHN  TULLOCH,  D.D. 

Sixth  Thousand.    Crown  Octavo,  3s.  Od. 

Health.     Five  Lay  Sermons  to  Working  People. 

By  JOHN  BROWN,  M.D. 

Tenth  Thousand.     Foolscap  Octavo,  Is 

Roijal  Triifhs. 


By  HENRY  WARD  BEECHEl^ 


Si.xth  Thousand.     Crown  Octavo,  3s.  nd. 


The  Postman  s  Bag,  and  other  Stories, 

By  Rev.  J.  DE  LIEFDE. 

Illustratetl  by  I'ettic,  Cooper,  Mactaggart,  Ross,  Burton,  and  others. 

Fourth  Tiiousaud.     Crown  Octavo,  3s.  Od. 

* 

A  Present  Heaven. 

By  the  .Vuthor  of  "  The  Patience  of  Hope.' 

Third  Edition.     Foidscap  Octavo,  2s.  0<1. 


The  Words  of  the  Angels. 

By  RUDOLF  STIER,  D.D. 


Fiuirth  Thousand.     Crown  Octavo,  3s.  ♦)»'. 


6 


The  Near  and  the  Ilenvtnhj  Horizons. 

By  Ma.larne  DE  GASPARI.V. 

Twenty-sixth  Tlnmsauil.     Crown  O.-tavo,  :}s.  ♦51. 

Proceed  inrjs  of  the  Geneva  Conference  of  the  Evangelical 

Alliann-,  h.-ld  in  Sei.tfmlxT  ISf.l.     E<litt'.l  by  the  lii-v.  GAVIX  CARLYLK, 
A.M. 

Sixteen  Portraits.    Oitavo,  cloth,  .^s. 


Job  Jacob  and  his  Boxes.     A  Stouj  idtistrative  of  the 

Benctits  of  8aving.s'  Banks  and  Friendly    S.x-ieties.     Bv  NORM  VX  M  \t'- 
LEOD,  D.l). 

Is.  jier  i>aeket  of  l.'j  Copies. 

Preparation  for  the  Lord's  Table.  A  Manual  for  Yowaj 

Cuminniii.  ii.t.      lU"  the  Uev.  A.  CLERIHEW. 

Cloth,  •i<l. 


Nature  and  tlie  SupernaturaL 

By  HORACE  BUSIINELL,  l>  H. 


Key  Notes  of  the  Bilde. 

By  s   T. 


Cheap  Editinii      Post  Octavo,  .is.  Cil 


CI«»tIl,     Is.     tMl. 


Personal  Pieti/. 

Bv  c.  T. 


Fifth  Etlitiuii.     Xeat  eloth.  red  edges,  Is.  M. 


Wee  Davie. 

ByXUR.MAX  MACI^EOD,  D.D. 


Twentieth  Thousand,  iilusti-atel,  <;«{. 


From  Death  to  Life. 

By  the  Rev.  ADoLl'il  SAPHIR,  Grtcuwich. 


I 


Poems. 


By  the  Author  of  "  The  Patience  of  Hope." 


Foolscap  Octavo,  (?s. 


The  Bestoration  of  the  Jews. 

By  DAVIU  BROWX,  D.l).,  Author  of  "  The  Second  Advent,"  etc. 

Small  Crown  Octavo,  .•.s. 

Christian  Nurture. 

By  HORACE  BUSIIXELL.  D.D.  ,       ,  _    ^  ^      ., 

^  Fifth  Thousand.     Crown  Octavo,  Is.  ...1. 


The  Gold  Thread. 

BvXORMAX  MACLEOD,  D.D. 


The  New  Life, 


Fifth  Thousand,  illustrated.     Price  'is.  f.d. 


Bv  HORACE  BUSnXELL,  D.D. 

Fifteeutli  Thiuisand.     Fine  Edition,  4s.  Od.  ;  Cheap  Eihtion,  Is.  od. 

Christian  Believing  and  Living. 


BvF.  D.  HUXTIXGDOX,  D.D. 


Second  Thousand.    Crown  Octavo,  4s.  r-d. 


The  Patience  of  Eofc. 


Second  Thousand.     Foolscap  Octavo,  -'s.  t'.d. 


Large  Post  Octavo,  (In. 


Fortij  Years  Experience  of  Sujiday-Schools. 

By  STEPHEX  H.  TYXG,  D.D.    ^.^^^^  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^      ^^^^^^^^^^^  ^^.^^^,^^   ^^   ,,,, 

The  Pathicay  of  Promise. 

Thirty-Hixth  Thousand.     In  neat  cloth  autitiue,  Is.  t;d 

The  Character  of  Jesus. 

By  HORACE  Bu'sHXELL,  D.D. 

Twentieth  Thousand,     ^eat  cU)th,  red  edges,  t.d. 

The  Way  Home. 

By  the  Rev.  CHARLES  BULLOCK. 

Thirteenth  Thousand.     Fo<_)lscap  Octavo,  Is.  od. 

Daily  Meditations. 

Reprinted  from  "  Good  Wonln."  ^^_^^^  Thousand.     Foolscap  Octavo,  -is. 


The  Power  of  Prayer, 

By  the  Rev.  Dr.  PRIME. 

Sixty-seventh  Thousand.     Fine  Edition,  2s.  ;  Cheap  Edition.  Is. 

Blind  Bartimeus. 

By  the  Rev.  W.  J.  H(XrE. 

Thirty-second  Thousand.     Fine  Edition,  2s.  6d. ;  Cheap  Edition.  Is. 

Life  Thoiujhts. 

By  HENRY  WARD  BEECHER. 

Fortieth  Thousand.     Cheap  Editions,  28.  f>d.  and  2.<?. 

The  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast  Table, 

By  OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLME;^. 

Third  ThoTisan.l      N%^at  cloth,  2s.  6d. 

Prevailing  Prayer. 

With  Introiiuction  by  NORMAN  MACLEOD,  D.D. 

Fourth  Thousand.     Neat  (doth,  red  edges.  Is.  (m1. 

The  Higher  Christian  Life. 

By  tiie  Rev.  W.  E.  BOARDMAX. 

Twenty-second  Thousand.    Neat  cloth.  Is  c' 


God  in  the  Dicelling, 

By  the  Rev.  DUDLEY  A.  TYNG. 


Fifth  Thousand.     Neat  cloth,  Is. 


Summer  in  the  Soul, 

By  HENRY  WARD  BEECHER. 

Sixth  Th..usand.     Cloth  extra,  anti.iue,  red  edges,  2s.  ('d. 

The  Still  Hour, 

By  AUSTLV  PHELPS,  D.D. 

Twtnti.tli  Thousan.i.     Fine  Edition,  Is.  ;  Cheap  Edition,  Td. 


ALEXANDER  STRAHAN  &  CO., 

32.  LuDOATE  Hill,  Loxdo.v. 


I 


9 


"Good  Words  are  worth  much  and  cost  Utile.'' -JlEBhEViT. 


SIXPENCE    MONTHLY. 

Profusely  Illustrated  with  Woodcuts  from  designs  hy 

MILLAIS,  HOLMAN  HUNT,  TENXIEL,  KEENE,  WALKER,  PETTIE, 

AND  OTHERS, 

GOOD   WORDS, 

§1  Uliigitiine  for  all  tbc  Mtt\\. 
EDITED  BY  NORMAN  MACLEOD,  D.D., 

OKE  OF   HER   MAJESTY'S  CHAPLAINS, 


Arrangements  for  1863. 

The  experiment  has  been  tried  of  establishing  a  Magazine  which  shouM  rellect 
the  every  day  life  of  a  good  man,  with  its  times  of  religious  thought  and  devotional 
feeling,  naturally  jiassiug  into  others  of  healthy  recreation,  bu.sy  work,  intellectual 
study,  poetic  joy,  or  sunny  laughter  and  its  success  has  exceeded  even  the  san- 
guine hojtes  of  its  itrojectors.  (aiod  Words  was  commenced  three  years  ago,  and 
has  already  reached  a  monthly  circulation  (tf  70,000  copies. 

The  Publishers  have  now  uuich  pleasure  in  announcing,  that  whatever  has 
hitherto  attracted  public  favour  to  their  enterprise  will  be  continued  and  ex- 
tended :  and  that,  in  addition  to  the  regular  Magazine  Papers,  there  will  next 
year  be  Four  Important  Serial  Works,  by  Dr.  Glthkie,  Anthony  Tkoi,u>pe,  Dr. 
Cairx),  and  Dr.  Macleou,  going  on  together,  ami  completed  within  the  Volume. 


Contents  of  the 

L  The  Parables,  read  in  the  Light  of 
the  Present  Day:— Chap.  L  The 
Parable  of  the  Leaven.  Hy  TIk'S. 
Guthrie,  D.D.  lUustnitedby  Millais. 

•1.  On  the  Clwiracteristies  of  the  Age. 
Bv  Sir  David  Ibewster. 

3.  The  "Monks  and  the  Heathen.     By  the 

Rev.  Charles  Kingsley.     Illustrated 
by  John  Pettie. 

4.  Charities   in  the   Black   Forest.     By 

William  Fleming  Stevenson. 

5.  Needles  and  Pins.     A  Page  f«)r  Girls. 

Bv  Sarah  Tvtler. 
r..  A  Pastoral,     liv  Dora  Greenvvell.     B- 

lustrated  by  J.  D.  Watson. 
7.  The  Widow's  Mite  :  a  Christmas  Tale. 

By  Anthony  Trollope. 
S.  The  Cure  of  "Over-Auxiety.     By  the 

Editi>r. 


January  Part. 
9 


By  Laurence 


A  Visit  to  Montenegro. 
Oliphant. 

10.  About    Volt-anos   and    Earthquakes. 

By  Sir  John  Herschel,  Bart. 

11.  Coni-eniing  Things  whicli  Cannot  Go 

On.     Bv  A.  K.  H.  B. 

12.  St.  Elmo. '  By  Isa  Craig.     Blustrated 

by  A.  B.  liaughton. 
\:\.  Metiitations   in  Advent.     By  Henrj- 
Alford,  D.  1).,  Dean  of  Canterbury. 

14.  Reminisi'cnces  of  a  Hi;,ddand  Parish. 

("hap.  L     By  the  Editor. 

15.  (Jolilen  Words.      By  Adehiide  Ann 

Procter. 
IG.  Essays  for  Sunday  Reatling.    Chap. 
L     Conversion  in    Primitive   and 
in  Modern  Times.    By  John  Caird, 
D.D. 


London:    STRAHAN  &  CO.,  32,  Ludgate  Hill. 


10 


III  One  Elegant  Volume,  of  750  Royal  Ot-tavo  Pages,  Extra  Cloth,  Full  Gilt, 

Price  T-s.  Od., 

GOOD     WORDS 

FOR  lcSG2. 

Edited  by  NORMAN  MACLEOD,  D.D. 

An<l  Illustratetl  Avith  Eij;lity  W«>o.l  Engraviii;^'s  from  Do-iigns  by  Millais,  Holmax 
Hint,  Keknk,  Walkkk,  W«>lk,  Watson,  ami  others. 


Amnnff  the  contents  of  this  Volume  are: — 

:vr  I  s  T  Pt  ESS   a  x  d   :\[  a  t  d  ; 

A  IIOrSEIloLD  STORY. 

By  the  Author  of  "JOHN  HALIFAX,  GENTLEMAN." 
With  1"J  Illustrations  by  J.  E.  Millais. 


And  the  following   Papers  : — 

By  SIR  DAVID  BREWSTER. 

Tlu'  Facts  aiul  Fancies  of  .Mr.  Darwin.       I  The  F]ye  :  its  Structure  and  Powers. 
The  IMiciiomena  and  Illusions  of  Vision. 

By  the  Author  of  "  RECREATIONS  OF  A  COUNTRY  PARSON." 

Concerning  the  Keasonablcness  of  Ccr-  Concerning  Beginnings  and  En«ls. 

tain  Words  of  Christ.  <  Mitsidc. 

Conccrninjr    Atniospliercs  ;    with    SdUie  Concerning  Getting  On. 

Thoughts  on  Currents.  At  the  Land's  End. 

By  PROFESSOR  PIAZZI  SMYTH. 

(Astronoiner-Uoyal  lor  .Scotland.) 

Alxjve  the  Clouds.  |  Time  and  its  .Mea.suremelit. 

Vistas  iu  the  Russian  Church  (2  I'arts). 

By  MISS  GREENWELL. 


Go  and  Come. 
The  Carrier  Pigeon. 


Love  in  Death. 
The  Bonds  uf  Love 


A  Dialogic 


By  PRINCIPAL  TULLOCH. 

Church  Scandal  iu  Home  in  tlie  Tiiird  Centurj'. 

By  JOHN  HOLLINGSHEAD. 

A  Social  Riddle.  |  The  Cotton  Famine. 


1  i 

■ 

f 

i 

1 

I  i 

■ 

y^^sf- 


The  Union  of  Man  with  Man. 

A  Word  iu  Season. 

Moments  in  Life. 

What  if  Christianity  is  not  True? 

Sunday. 

Missions  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

Three  Present-Day  Tracts. 


11 


By  NORMAN  MACLEOD,  D.D. 

(Editor.) 

F(mr  Difficulties  solved  in  Jesus  Christ. 

Notes  on  a  Ramble  to  North  Italy. 

Our  Ncighbdur. 

A  Peep  at  the  Netherlands  and  Holland. 

A  True  Ghost  Story. 

War  nntl  its  Gains. 

The  Merchant  of  the  Far  West. 


By  WILLIAM  FLEMING  STEVENSON. 


Three  Lives  Worth  Knowing  about. 

On  soiiu'  Guessers  at  Truth. 

Matthew  Claudius,  Homme  de  Lettres. 


On  the  Biography  of  certain  Hymns. 
Vaija  bonds. 


By  the  Author  of  "  JOHN  HALIFAX." 


"  Untd  Her  Death." 


I   Five  Shillings'  Wortli  of  the  Great  WorM's  Fair. 
By  ALEXANDER  SMITH. 


War.lie  in  Sprin-JT  Time.  i  On  Solitude. 

An  Es.sav  on  an  Old  Essayist     Montaigne.  !  Autumn. 


By  ARCHBISHOP  WHATELY. 


Food. 

Hope  and  Fear. 

Intluence. 


Duration  of  Life. 

Hvpociisy. 

The  Church  of  Rome,  a  Party 


.\nomalies  in  Language. 


Of  Hot  Water. 


By  PRINCIPAL  LEITCH. 

The  Uses  of  the  Moon.      i      A  Night  in  an  Observat<u-y.      j      A  Winter  in  Canada. 

By  COUNTESS  DE  GASPARIN. 


Out  of  Do<u-s  in  January. 
Old  Customs  an<l  Old  Folk. 


The  Crimson  Fhiwer. 
The  East. 


By  J.  M.  LUDLOW. 

A  Year  of  the  Slavery  Question.  Moshesh,  the  Chief  of  the  Mountain. 

Gctfrard,  President  of  Hayti. 


By  GERALD  MASSE Y. 

Pictures  in  tlie  Fire.  I  Albert's  Tcuub. 

By   PRINCIPAL    FORBES. 

(.)n  Glaciers  (Two  Papers). 

By  P.  H.  GOSSE. 

A  Dav  in  the  Woods  of  Jamaica. 


Garibaldi. 


Each  Year's  issue  of  GOOD  WORDS  forms  a  comi-lete  Book,  no  Paper  being 
continued  from  one  vidunie  to  another. 


LONDON  :  STRAHAN  &  CO.,  32,  LUDG  ATE  HILL. 


12 


13 


In  One  Elegant  Volume  of  750  Rnyal  Octavo  Pages,  Extra  Cloth,  Full  Gilt 

Price  7s.  6d., 

GOOD    WOEDS 

FOR  18G1. 

Edited  by  NORMAX  MACLEOD,  D.D., 

And  Illustrate.1  with  Ei-hty  Wocl  Engravings,  printed  <,n  tone.l  iin.l  white  paper 

The  Publishers  respectfully  direct  attention  to  the  foir  important  new  works 
which  are  published  ia  this  Volume. 

I. 

THE  EELIGION  OF  LIFE  ILLUSTRATED 

AND  APPLIED. 

Hy  THOMAS  GUTHRIE,  D.D.,  F.disburoh. 

II. 

THE  OLD  LIEITEXANT  AND  HIS  SOX. 

By  NORMAX  MACLEOD,  D.D.,  Editor. 
III. 

OLE  SUNDAY   EVEXIXGS. 


Good  Words  for  1861 — continued. 


A   SERIES   OF    PAPERS   FOR    FAMILY    READING     BY 
JAMES  HAMILTON.  1)  D 
A.    P.   STAXLKY.   D.I) 
W.    L.   ALKXAXDKH,   D.D. 
DAVID  HHnWX.   D  D 
FtKV.   THOMAS   MIXXKV 
Rev.  W.   M.  PUNSIloN 


JOIIX  EADIK,  LED.,  D.D. 
J.   M.   M'CULLOCH.  D.D 
.1.    H.    MAiDUFF,  D  D 
Hkv.  THOMAS  SMITH,  A.M. 
HOUFKT  LKE,  D.D. 
NORMAN  MACLEOD,  D.D. 


IV. 


ILLUSTR.VTIOXS  OF  SCRIPTURE    Bv  J.B. 

Twtlve  full-page  Illu.stratioiis,  engraved  l.y  D.\lziel  Brothers* 
and  printed  on  toned  paper.  ' 


The  foUowing  List  of  Papers  will  serve  to  Indicate  the  General 

Contents  of  this  Volume : — 

^'h^.H^.^''-     »>"  *»'^  '^"thor  of  -  John  The   Do.h.r.      By  John   Brown.    MD 

Ti.       ;           IT,          ,   o  ,      ,  Author  of  "Hah  and   Iiis    Friends'" 

The   (  nguml    Raj^ged  School.      //,.,/'   ,7  1.  o„r  Duti.s  to  the  Doetor      .."xhe 

^rns<.ntlp,n,,dn-hn,itho.DnH..     By  Doctor's    Duties   to    Us      T  Health 

Thomas  Gu  hne.  D.  D.,  Edi.d.urgh.  4.  Children,  and  How  t<  Guide  The  „ 

\\ee  Davie.     By  Nunnan  Macleud,  \).\}.  5.   Medical  Odds  an.l  Ends 


.     1 


The  Light  of  the  World.     By   Adolph 

Saphir. 
Honesty  is  the  Best  Policy.     By  Hugh 

Stowell  Brown. 
The  Working  Associations  oi  Paris.     By 

J.  M.  Ludlow. 
The  Paradise  of  Fools.     By  J.  IL  Fyfe. 
What  is  a  Pound?    By  John  Hollings- 

head. 
An    Hour  among  the   Torbay  Sponges. 

BvP.  H.  Gosse.  F.R.S. 
A   Sabbath   at   Aldershott.     By   J.    R. 

Macduff,  D.D. 
Cain's  Branch     Bv  H.  K. 
The  First  Look-out  on  tlie  World.     By 

the  Author  of  "John  Halifax." 
The  Lite  and  Historv  of  a  Salmon.     By 

the  Rev.  David  Ks.liile. 
The  Soutli  Sea  Islands.     1.  As  they  Were 

Tweidv  Years  Aj,'o.      2.  As  thev  Are 

To  Day.     By   the    Rev.    John    Inglis, 

Missionary  to  the  Xew  Hebrides. 
A  Journey  Through  Space.     By  Princi- 
pal Leitch. 
The  House  of  Mirth.     By  the  late  Rev. 

Edward  Irving. 
The    Waker,     the     Dreamer,     and    the 

Sleeper.      By  the  Rev.  J.   De  Liefde, 

Anisterdatn. 
Facts  from  a  South  Staffordshire  Ragged 

School.      By  the  Rev.  H.  W.  Holland, 

Author  of  '•  Tiiieves  and  Tiiieving." 
The  Ever-Shining  Stars.     By  Isar.     1;  -- 

lor. 
Mv   First    Geological    Excursion.       By 

Archibald  (Jeikie,  F.G.S. 
Memoirs  of  an   Unknown  Life.     J}y  an 

Unknown  Author. 
A  Pec]»  at  Hu.ssia  and  the  Shores  of  the 

Baltic.      By  Xomian  Macleod,  D.D. 
Pictures    from    the     Farly    Life   of    the 

Church.     By  Princijial  TuUoch. 
Kastern    Prisons.      Bv  Thomas   Smith, 

A.M.,  Calcutta. 
T.    T.    Fitzrov,  Es(i.     By  Norman  Mac- 
leod, D.D." 
A  National  Song.     By  Dora  Greeiiwell. 
Street  Scenes  in  Canton.     By  an  Officer 

in  the  Roval  Xavv. 
The  Wavs  and  Works  of  the  Blind.     Bv 

J.  H.  Fyfe. 
What  Have  You   Done?     By  Norman 

Macleod,  D.D. 
Goby  Hunting.     By  P.  H.  Gosse,  F.R.S. 


By  W.    F. 

F](luatori:d 
Bushnell, 
the   Gorilla 


By 


Telescopes  and  Astronomers.     By  Prin- 

ci]>al  Leitch. 
The  Cerealia  :  A  Standing  Miracle.     By 

Professor  Harvev. 
The  Ball  of  WorstecL     By  the  Author  of 

"  Menioiix  of  an  Unknown  Life." 
The  Bee-Hive  Close.     By  the  Countess 

de  Gasjiarin,   Author  of   "  The  Near 

and  the  Heavenly  Horizons." 
Flowers  for  the  Poor.     By  the  Rev.  J. 

Erskine  Clark. 
St.  John  of  the   East  Sea. 

Stevenson. 
Missionarv     Enteri)rise    in 

Africa.  ^  By    the    Rev.    A. 

Resident    Missionary   in 

CoiintiT. 
The  .Man'of  War  and  the  Parish  Schtud. 

Bv  the  Rev.  W.  G.  Blaikie. 
Short  Paj.ers  for  tlie  Times.     By  Arch- 

bishoji  Whately. 
All    .Vbout    the    House. 

Maria  Gordon. 
Deaconess  Institution  of  Kaiserswerth. 

By  William  Flemin.Lr  Stevenson. 
London    Model    Lodging- Houses. 

John  Hollingshead. 
The    Comiui,'    of    the    Spring.     By 

Auth.u-of"  John  Halifax." 
Scenes  from  the  Life  and  Travels  of  our 

Lord.      By    the    Rev.    J.    L.     Porter. 

Autiior  of    "Murrav's    Handbt)ok   of 

Palestine." 
Light  and  Scenery  as  affecting  Health. 

By  Dr.  Aniens  Smith,  .Manchester. 
The  Woiidciot  Indifference.    Bv  Norman 

Macleod,  D.D. 
Peter  Floger,  the  Tailor  of  Buinen.     By 

the  Rev.  J.  De  Liefde,  .\msterdam. 
Patent  Medicines.     By  Thomas  Herbert 

Jones. 
Village  Incidents.     By  Elsie  Garret. 
Bees  and  the  Art  of  (^ueeii-Making.     By 

Princijial  Leitch. 
The  Creation  of  the  World.      By  John 

Stuart   Blackie,  Piofe.ssor  of  tireek  in 

the  University  of  Kdiiibnijiii. 
The   Emancii>ation  of  the  Seifs 

Orischinskv,  St.  Petersbur^di 
Books  of  Devotit.n.     By  W.   F. 

son. 
The  Strau>;e  Origin  of  the  Friesland  Caji. 

A  Legend  of  Holland.     By  the  Rev.  J. 

De  Liefde,  Amsterdam. 


Margaret 


B.\ 

the 


By  c. 
Steven- 


ALEXANDER    STRAHAN    &    CO., 

32,    LUDGATE    IIlLL,    LoXDON. 


14 


15 


In  One  Elegant  Volume  of  800  Royal  Octavo  Pages,  Extra  Cloth,  F.ill  Gilt 

Price  7s.  6tl., 

GOOD    WORDS 

FOR  18G0. 

Edited  by  NORMAX  MACLP:0D,  D.D. 

And  Illustrated  with  102  Wood  Engrarings  from  Dedgns  by  R.ninent 

Artists. 


I?-: 


Good  Words  fot  1860— continued. 


Among  the 
The  Rev.  John"  Caird,  D  U.  (iias-uw 
Miss  Miu)(  k.  Author  of  *' J..hn  Halifax 

Cit'iiti»-iiiari." 
Dr.  Mkulk  U'AiBroN-K,  Geneva. 
I*rof«'ss<ir  DAVif)  Hhow.v.  Altenleen 
The  AiitliMi-  Mf  the  "  Nut  lirowu  Mai.U  " 

GkRAI.I)  MAS.XKV. 

Tlie  Rev.  W.  Morlkv  Pinshos. 
The  Rev.  John  Clmmi.ncj,  1)  I) 

Among  the 

Jame.s  Archkr,  R.8  a. 
•Jamks  Dki  mmoni),  R..S.A. 
Krski.ne  N'm»i„  R.S.A. 

GofKLAV  STKtLL,  R.S.A. 

Clark  Stantov. 


Authors  are — 

•Mis.  MAR.iAHKT  Maria  Gordon-. 
,  [  The  Rfv.  Hc.;n  Stuwell  Rroww. 
;  Pruiciital  TrtLocH. 
The   Rev.    J.    Dr   Liffde,    Ainstenlairi. 
Author  of  "  The  Pastorof  Gegeuhurg." 
Th.'  Rev.  J.  R    Macdl'kf,  D.D 
PnnciiMl  Lkitch. 
,   Miss  .MARsfr. 
I  The  Rev.  Xorman  Ma'jleod,  D.D. 

Artists  are — 

•  W I  I.I.I  AM  g.  <  tRCHARDSON. 

I  J.  .Maiwuirtkk. 

I  Cl.ARKNt  K  DoBKI.L. 

I  Robert  IIerdmav 

I  C.   A.   DOVLE. 

I  KeeleV  HAL.SWELLE. 


Among  the  Contributions  are— 
GODS  GLORY  I\  THE  HEAVENS.      10  Chapters, 

liy  PRINCIPAL  LKITCH. 

COUNSELS  FOR  YOUNG  MEN.     4  Chaptera. 

U.v  XOH.\HX  .\r.\tl,K(>l),  D.D,,  tolToK. 

MEDITATIONS  ON  HEAVEN.     7  Chapters. 

B.V  tlu.  Rev.  J.  R  .M.VCDLKF,  D.D.,  .^,.,,,,,r,,f  ,,,„..  M,,„,i,,, ,,,,,,  i,^.,,^  ^.„,,,,^^.. 

LADY  SOMERVILLES  MAIDENS.    A  Story.    29  Chapter., 

By  the  Author  of  the  *•  Nut  Jirowii  Maiils." 

THE  GOLD  THREAD,    A  St„ry  f.,r  the  Young.    ,5  Chapters 

H.v  .N(>li.\HX  .\HLI.EOD,  D.D.,  Edttor. 

DAILY  MEDITATIONS  :    or,   Goo.!  Wor.ls  for  Every  Day 

(305  Rea.lings).  ^ 


Pictures  from  the  Life  of  the  Early 
Church.  Three  Chapters  By  Priu- 
cipal  Tulloch. 

Asj»ects  of  Indian  Life  during  the  Re- 
bellion. Six  Papers.  By  J.  M.  Lud- 
low, Esq. 

Photograplis  from  the  Gospels.  Three 
Chai»teis.    By  Professor  David  Brown. 

Missionary  Sketches.  Six  Papers.  By 
Thcmias  Smith,  A.M. 

Christian  Life  in  Germany  in  the  Nine- 
teenth Century.  Ten  Chapters.  By 
W.  F.  Stevenson. 

Bihle  Records  of  Remarkable  Ccmver- 
sions.     a  Papers.     By  Adolidi  Saphir. 

Joy  among  the  Angels.  By  Rev.  W. 
Landels. 

Song  of  Antioch.   liy  J.  M.  Ludlow,  Esq. 

Inciilent  in  the  Arctic  Seas.  Bv  Rtv.  J, 
R.  Macluft.  D.D. 

On  the  Atlantic.  By  Norman  Mack-oil, 
D.D. 

Auroras.  By  W.  Jack,  of  St.  Peter's 
Hall,  Cambridge. 

The  Caravansary  of  Bagdad,  from  the 
Danish. 

Bees  and  Bee-Hives.  By  John  Cnm- 
ming,  D.D. 

The  Destroyed  Cities  of  the  Plain.  By 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Jamieson. 

St.  Columba.  By  Professor  Shairp,  St. 
Andrews. 

Concerning  ChiMhood.    By  Geo.  Hume. 

Illu.strations  of  Providence.  By  Caiion 
Stowell. 

Doi-tor  Si»arrow.     ]?y  Adoli'h  Sai)hir. 

A  Summer's  Study  of  Ferns.  By  Miss 
Fernlover. 

1.51.')  versus  ISr.O.     By  Dr.  M.  D'Aubigne. 

What  has  bet-n  done"  in  the  Fiji  Islands. 
By  Miss  Farmer. 

Pi-otestantism  in  France.  By  Principal 
Tulloch. 

The  Fate  of  Franklin.     By  J.  M. 

A  Summer  Hovu-  in  my  Garden.  By 
George  Hume. 

How  I  became  a  Governess.    By  Miss  — 

The  Evils  of  Great  Cities.     By  A.  T.  I. 

The  Crowded  Harbotir.  By  Miss  Marsh, 
Author  of  "Memorials  of  Hedlcy 
Vicars." 

A  Door  Opened  in  Heaven.  By  Profes- 
sor David  Brown. 

Highlanders  at  Home  and  Abroad.  By 
Norman  Maclcod,  D.D. 

Profes.sor  George  Wilson.  By  W.  Lind- 
.say  Alexander,  D.D. 


Scenes  in  Italv.    Bv  William  Arthur, 

A.  M. 
Laiimer  in  the  Pulpit.     By  Hugh  Stow- 

ell  Brown. 
The  True   Rest  f(tr  Man.     By  Norman 

Macleoil,  D.D. 
David    Chart's    Memoranda.      By  Miss 

H»nvitt. 
Meth.tdism    in    the     Far    West.      By 

W.  H.  G. 
Ascent  of  Mont  Blanc.     By  a  Member 

of  the  Alpine  Club. 
Sketches  in  Natural  History.     By  Wil- 
liam Kcddi*'. 
The  Mi.lnight  Mission.     By  L.  C.  C. 
The   Story    of   Ninian.       By   Professi>r 

Shair)). 
Nuremberg  Stories.     By  Adolidi  Sa]>hir. 
Our  Bob.     Bv  Norman  Madecd.  D.D. 
A   String  of "  Pearls.     Bv  the  Rev.   Dr. 

M'Farlane,    Author    of    "The    Night 

Lamp." 
The  Power  of  Prayer.     By  W.  F.  Steven- 

st)n. 
Ct)ncerning  Each  One's  Religious  His- 
tory.    By  A.  T.  I. 
Saul  of  Tarsus  a  Chosen  Vessel.     Bv  the 

Rev.  Dr.  M'Culloch. 
The  Little  Screw.      By  the  Rev.  J.  de 

Liefde,  Amsterdam,  Autiior  of  "The 

Pastor  of  Gegcnburg." 
Pojtular  Misa]iplications  of  Scripture. 

By  Hujih  Stdwell  Brown. 
The   Broken    Link.     By  Airs.    Margaret 

Maria  Gordon. 
I  Old  Jenny  of  Glen  Immern.     By  Nor- 

m;in  Mac]co<l,  1).  I). 
In  the  Life  i>f  a  Village  School ma.ster. 

By  W.  F.  Stevenstm. 
Relle<'ti<uis  of  a  Ritle  Volunteer.      Bv 

A.  T.  1. 
Svmbolism  in  the  Christian  Economv. 

"By  John  Caird,  D.D. 
Journey  by  Sinai  to  Syria.     By  the  Rev. 

Donald  Maclcod. 
Massacre   of  Christians   in    Syrin.       By 

Professor    J.    L.    Porter,    Author    of 

"  Munav's  Han<l  book  of  Palestine." 
The  LittleRift.     By  L.  C.  C. 
Alexander  von  Humboldt.    By  the  Rev. 

Dr.  llollniaii.  Royal  Chaidain,  Berlin. 
An  Autumn  Psalm.     By  tlic  Author  of 

"John  Halifax,  (icntleman." 
Garibaldi.     Bv  Gerald  Massev. 
The  Lone  One'.     By  H.  MarvT. 
The  White  Crusade  — Italy  I  SCO.     By  the 

Author  of  "  The  Patience  of  Hoj.c." 


ALEXANDEK  STRAHAN  &  CO., 

32,  LUDGATE  IIiLL,  LOXDOX. 


COMPLETION    OF 

THE  XEWS  OF  THE   CHUECHES, 

AND    COMMENCEMENT    OF 

Ut  BonihUi  Itarntttbe  of  % 
WORK  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH 

AT    HOME    AND    ABEOAD. 


It  s  now  mne  years  smce  Fhe  ye,rso/tlu^  Churches  was  Hrst  offered  to  the  public 
The  <es.revvnd.  the  proprietors  had  at  heart  in  originatin.'it  has  been  realized 
and  durable  benefits  conferred.     It  has  been  the  nu-ans.  under  Pnnidence   o    u: 
pns.ni,^  the  nie.nbers  of  all  the  branches  of  the  Christian  Church,  of  the  state  ad 
progress,  the  dim.-ulties  an.l  trials  of  each  branch,  thus  eliciting VcJeard^t^^sj. 
patlues  an.   prayers  of  all,  and  enabling  all  to  profit  from  the  practi,-al  experiences 
of  each      I  r.  Livingstone,  writing  to  a  friend  a  few  months  ago  from  Central  \frica 
•says  :-"The  .dea  of  The  Xe.s  of  the  Churches  is  capital.     It  does  the  he       gi  od  t!,' 
see  how  nuu-h  ,s  do.ng  in  all  parts  of  the  world  to  spread  our  blessed  religdon 
fee   uichned  to  wnte  .son.e  papers  for  it  telhng  hownnu-h  missionaries  are  needed  " 
But  now  ,t  IS  felt  that  much  more  remains  to  W  done  than  can  possibly  be 
achieved  w.th.n  the  space,  and  under  the  conditi.>ns  to  which,  in  order  to  make  it 
available  for  its  original  purpo.ses,  Thr  Xeu-s  has  been  confined.     Messrs    Strahan 
<S:Co.,po.sse.s.smg  the  entire  copyright,  feel  accordingly  that  thev  ..aniiot  offer  a 
more  ac-;Ttable  servn-e  to  the  general  body  of  the  public  than  bv  the  discontinu 
ance  of  77<.  Xc.r,  nf  the  Churches,  and  the  production,  in  its  stead. 'of  a  new  jouna 
adapted  in  every  way  to  the  <-in-umstances  of  the  present  time,  when  the  work  of 
the  Lhristian  th.irch  is  so  eanie.stly  pursued,  an.l  so  many  Christian  activities  are 
m  operation  througli.uit  the  worid. 

Messrs.  Strahan  &  C.  have  cmsLU-rcl  what  an  anibiti.,n  it  is  t.)  make  this 
journal  worihy  of  its  name,  an.l  they  kn..w  the  responsibilitv  attaching  to  it      B  t 
experu-nee  ut  as  wi.le  success  as  has  heiet..forc  b.en  enjoyed"  by  any  nionthlv  ma^^a 
zme.  eneourages  them  to  enter  uj.oi,  it  in  a  hopeful  spirit 

In  this  brief  pr,.speetus  they  say  nothing  as  to  the  plans  upon  which  the  Work 
or  TUK  (.  HKisr.AX  CHiRcH  wiU  be  conducte.1.  They  must  leave  the  First  NunibJ^^ 
to  say  this  for  them.  "inwi 

TA.  Work  ok  the  Christian  Chcroh  ,.,7/  I^  ^.rinte.I  U  Royal  Octavo,  each  Xum- 
f>er  cnntaunng  .^ixty-four  jKt.jcs,  and  Illustrated  with  ^fai,s  and  Ut'odcuts  a,  re>iuired. 


No.   I.   will  appear  on  2d  March. 

Price  Sixpence f  Monthly. 
London:    STKAUAxX   &    CO.,    32,    Ludoate    Hill. 


/ 


!^ 


£iili^ai  SSwiiSwteiiii'iiil 


^ 


?K^ 


^ 


•^■'C 


1  J.-    . ./,  y" 


MltftfHilFI*<^ill^lrflMiiliMlWll^ll.|iiili<»iMi**tflillllMlwii>l>iiiifi|»i  »i<llimiliiil>1<IIMii  lllil**! 


«4IV*K 


I 


■'.V 


